


The Beautiful Mysterious

by IllegalCerebral



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Planet, Aliens, Assassination Attempt(s), Conspiracy, Cryptozoology, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Ghost Hunters, Ghosts, Good Loki (Marvel), Government Conspiracy, Hydra (Marvel), Loki (Marvel) Feels, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Mystery, Mystery Stories, Paranormal Investigators, Past Brainwashing, Podcast, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Loki (Marvel), Road Trips, SHIELD, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, UFOs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27471154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllegalCerebral/pseuds/IllegalCerebral
Summary: Idara Etienam had dedicated her life to solving mysteries. Travelling the country, she investigates ghosts, UFO sightings conspiracies and more for her podcastQuest For The Truth. When New York is attacked by aliens, Idara's work is finally vindicated but it's only the start of the biggest mystery she will have to unravel. When Loki literally crashes down in front of her the two have to team up to find out what's going on.An alien prince, the fallout of invasion, a shadowy organisation and a conspiracy with deep roots - Idara and Loki will need to stay one step ahead of different parties while trying to unearth the truth.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 43





	1. Episode One: The Battle of New York, Part One

**Author's Note:**

> **I do not give permission for this work to be copied and pasted on any other platform. If you come across this story posted anywhere other than here or on my tumblr, @illegalcerebral, it have been STOLEN**
> 
> The first chapter of this story is my entry for [@allaboardthereadingrailroad's MCU Diversity writing challenge on tumblr.](https://allaboardthereadingrailroad.tumblr.com/post/625558267365638144) My prompt was The X Files!

_Hey there truth seekers and welcome to another episode of_ Quest For The Truth _. I’m your host Idara Etienam and this episode comes to you from a little town in Nevada. It’s the sort of place where everyone knows their neighbour, they’re all in cattle ranching and everyone supports the local football team and drinks at the same bar where the lady in charge serves you your usual with a wink. Desert days are long and the nights are bright under a veil of stars and everyone feels safe and secure. But like anywhere, the truth and a changing world cannot be held off forever…_

Idara would always be annoyed that when the world changed so fundamentally she had been distracted by a cattle rancher who was convinced a yeti had kidnapped his award winning cow. In Nevada. It didn’t matter how many times she tried to explain that the Yeti was a creature from Himalayan folklore, that if they did exist they would inhabit snowy, mountainous regions as opposed to the arid great basin, and if they had decided to take a vacation to the US the Yeti probably wouldn’t use a truck to cart off a cow.

“There’s tire tracks,” Idara pointed out for the fifth time. “It looks like a full size pickup, not sure of the model. They probably sedated the cow and put her in the back. Didn’t you say she was worth a lot?”

For some reason people would prefer to believe that bad events were due to supernatural forces or acts of god rather than as a result of people’s ill will or incompetence. Idara knew enough about conspiracy theories and those that believed in them to understand the contradictions.

“Earl!” The ranchers wife thankfully came flying towards then at that moment. “Earl! Something’s happening. Amy just called she said there’s aliens in New York, its all over the TV.”

Without a word Idara had sped to her RV, parked just by the scene of the alleged cow abduction. The ranchers followed her in but Idara didn’t take any notice. Over the past few years as she’d travelled across the country, across the world, Idara had pulled out the original fittings and turned the dinette into a studio and workspace.. She had an editing suite and mixing board and roughly half a dozen screens as well as all of her scientific equipment ready to go at a moment’s notice.

“What channel?” Idara asked.

“All of them.” The woman’s face was bloodless and she was trembling.

_Not a hoax. This is it, this is real._

With shaking fingers, Idara turned on the news and the air left her lungs.

“Our crews are unable to get into Manhattan but the web had been flooded with cell phone footage from people who are stuck within the area. We’ve been getting reports that a portal of some sort has opened over the city and that a ship described as a giant metal serpent came through followed by smaller craft and what can only be described as extra terrestrial creatures.”

_Edikan._

Fear crashed over Idara as she scrambled for her phone, ignoring the torrent of notifications as she frantically brought up her brother’s number.

_Please answer, please answer._

Idara almost cried when her brother answered. His voice tired.

“Please tell me you’re not in Manhattan!”

“My entire Bio 101 class has been doing fieldwork outside the city for the past couple of days.” Relief flooded Idara and she sat down before her legs could give way. On the TV the news was cutting between various blurring videos and a reporter outside the city, a faint green glow visible in the distance. “You said something like this would happen. Is this like that thing in New Mexico you were talking about?”

“Maybe. Reports on the ground there claimed that whatever attacked was mechanical and those snake things look like they are too but it could be armour…” Idara squinted up at the screen before putting her phone on speaker and setting up her computer.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to record a podcast right now,” Edikan groaned.

“How callous do you think I am?” Idara snapped. “I just want to see if there are better images of those things. It might be connected to the Puente Antiguo incident but that still leaves a lot of questions.”

“Um, should we be worried?” Earl looked over at her, his arm round his shaking wife, “that’s the other side of the country but…”

“There’s people fighting down there!” Edikan said, “not the army but I heard Tony Stark is down there and Captain America.”

Two people against an entire alien army didn’t sound like much to Idara but the woman looked like she was about to start sobbing.

“They aren’t built for our world,” Idara said kindly, “they’re fighting with a severe disadvantage and Tony Stark can take out whole cells of terrorists single handedly with his weapons systems. They probably won’t make it out of New York.”

“I’m going to make you some tea,” Earl rubbed his wife’s shoulders and then turned to Idara. “Stay here as long as you like and if you hear anything…”

“I’ll let you know,” Idara smiled.

“Was that true?” Edikan asked once they gone. Idara didn’t answer, bringing up news feeds, forums and various pages she was a member of.

“Have you called Mom and Dad or Sifon?” She asked instead. There was already a reddit board dedicated to cataloguing all available footage from New York and someone had managed to piece together several images of the soldiers who had come through the portal. Aliens, honest to God aliens in New York.

“It was the first thing I did,” Edikan said, “and that reminds me. Dad says you should stock up your merch store. He wants to buy a bunch of T-Shirts for everyone at the hospital.”

“Of course he does,” Idara couldn’t help but smile. When everyone else had thought she was a freak for believing in the paranormal her father had stood by her. He’d bought Idara her first telescope when she was eight and had taken her to the science museum and the observatory, never laughing at her when she reasoned there was no way humans could be alone in the universe.

“If anyone can find out it’s you _mkpouto_ ,” he’d tell her.

“Mom wants you to stay safe, she’s been calling you,” said Edikan.

“I’ll call her after this,” Idara promised, “I just need to check-“

“Idara the world could be ending. Please just call Mom so she doesn’t freak out!”

“I will. In the meantime you should probably try and get out of the state, just in case.”

“So they might not stop the aliens?”

“I don’t know,” Idara paused in her frantic typing, “but I don’t want to risk it. Please go somewhere safe.”

Eventually Edikan promised and Idara made quick phone calls to her mother and sister. 

“Please don’t go to New York,” her mother begged, “I know you feel like you have to be there right in the thick of things but you can comment and investigate from afar.”

Idara hadn’t been planning on going. Based on the news reports and eye witness accounts, civilians didn’t have a hope in hell of getting close enough. She didn’t say that to her Mom though, just promised she would stay in Nevada until the whole thing blew over.

“So you were right,” were Sifon’s first words on answering, before a ‘hello’ or ‘how are you?’ Her sister had always made her views on the paranormal perfectly clear. “Edikan said this might be connected to the case you drove to New Mexico to investigate?”

“Maybe,” Idara scanned the statements she’d collected from Puente Antiguo residents the year before. Several passages were highlighted, all talking about a lightning strike that came just before the creature, whatever it was, had been destroyed. “There was theory that it was some kind of weapons test. The US Army has been scrambling to catch up with Stark tech since the whole Iron Man thing but even they wouldn’t be stupid enough to release it into a town to hurt people…”

But it hadn’t hurt people. It had destroyed property but its attack had been focused on one individual. A man who had arrived in town a couple of days before, acted very strangely and then promptly disappeared after the attack.

“You don’t believe that though,” Sifon asked. From the sound of it she was pacing around her restaurant kitchens the sound of the TV very faint in the background. “Could it have been some kind of test before this big attack?”

“Why New Mexico then?” Idara frowned. An alert from a discord server popped up. New footage of New York with the caption “Alien on our side????” It showed a huge green creature scaling a building and tearing apart one of the alien soldiers. At the end of the clip there was a blur at the bottom of the screen. 

She took the footage back and hit pause. It looked vaguely person shaped, a cape fanning out behind it. There was statement she needed to find.

“Hey Idara?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Why?” Idara frowned. It had to be here somewhere. She’d made notes.

“For making fun of you for all this stuff. For thinking you should get a real job. You could help people now you know?” Idara stopped looking. “People will want to know what to do and you’ve been saying that contact was coming for years. You’re prepared.”

There was an explosion on the TV. More space craft poured out of the portal over New York. Idara had never felt less prepared in her life.

“I’m looking into it,” she said instead. “I told Edikan to leave the state but honestly I don’t think those creatures will make it out of the city. Just hold tight.”

“Please call me tonight okay? I want to know you’re safe.”

 _Wow, the world is really upside down_ , Idara thought but she didn’t say it out loud. Instead she promised her sister she’d call her later and then after hanging up she went into research overdrive.

Every screen had a different news channel on, and alert after alert kept popping up on Idara’s phone. There was a dissonance between the information the media had and the stuff she was getting from the paranormal community.

The green creature was The Hulk, some kind of military experiment gone wrong that seemed to be behind carnage in Harlem four years before. Reports were sketchy, SHIELD had done a great job of clearing up but there was enough grainy footage and eye witness reports to make the connection to the guy in New York.

Idara scribbled “Military???” on a post-it note and stuck it to the bottom of one of her screens before firing off a forum post. Captain America was a US military project that had never been successfully replicated, Stark made weapons and now The Hulk was back and they all seemed to be working together alongside the caped guy, an archer and a woman in black. From the latest footage, the three unknowns knew how to handle themselves in a fight. They could be special forces.

Two seconds later there were a handful of replies.

 **Emmy93:** Stark ruled out giving the Iron Man suit to the military. Would he really join up with them??? Could be SHIELD. Those guys are getting louder rn?

 **DrHRadcliff:** Stark is a sellout. He’d help the highest bidder.

 **QuirkyBabe:** Umm it’s ALIENS! Mother fudging aliens. He might just not want his planet to blow up!!!!

 **TheHunter:** Not SHIELD. Not their style. They’re a covert intelligence organisation. These guys aren’t covert.

 **MockingBird:** Maybe stop mouthing off about shit you know nothing about.

 **ProudCatDad:** Hey Idara, is this connected to your NM investigation??? If it is please, stay safe.

The comment made Idara smile. Travelling around the way she did could be isolating but as soon as she sat down in front of her laptop or microphone she was connected to the world.

 **QFTTPodcast:** Thanks ProudCatDad. In all honesty it could be connected but right now I’m not sure how. I’m on the road, safe from harm at the moment but thank you for the kind words xx

She would need to record something. Sifon was right, Idara was uniquely positioned to say something and given how terrifying things looked she had a duty to help in whatever way she could.

The problem was Idara had a bunch of fragments and no idea how they fitted together. An insider at a lab just outside New York emailed readings from the portal and they seemed similar to the data Idara had managed to get from New Mexico but it wasn’t exactly the same. 

There was a short message with the readings: We’re evacuating, this is all I can send. Pray for us.

The screens all cut back to the various newsrooms simultaneously and Idara hit the unmute button on one of them.

“-reports of fighter jets being scrambled from a position just outside the city. There’s a base of some sort that could be military or it could be SHIELD, the mysterious global intelligence bureau that reports say has been involved in some strange activity in the lead up to this attack. There has been no comment from SHIELD, the US government or the World Council but the jets could be a move to decisively end the alien invasion.”

A nice euphemism for blowing Manhattan off the map, Idara thought. The channels cut between more footage of the New York and various experts with no idea what was going on. Idara sighed and snatched up her phone to post a live video.

“Hey questers,” she said with a small, sad smile. “I know we’re all scared right now. I’m terrified and I predicted we would see some kind of contact in the next decade. I didn’t think it would be at this scale, this soon. There’s talk of fighter jets and decisive actions and none of us really know what’s going on or why any of this is happening. Those of you who followed my investigation into the Puente Antiguo incident last year may notice some similarities but this is off the charts. The only thing I do know is that we will endure, we will rebuild and persevere and we will never give up our quest for the truth. I love you all, stay safe and stay curious.”

Within minutes of posting the video on her twitter and instagram there was a flood of responses. Most were positive, sending love to others, some were from people close to New York or with families and friends there and then some were from people who thought it was stupid and a waste of time to wish people well or to keep fighting.

Eventually, Idara turned her phone off and just watched, knees hugged to her chest as image after image of carnage and chaos crossed the screen. Barney woke up from where he was dozing in the driver’s seat and trotted over to Idara, settling in her lap. Betty was still curled up in the passenger seat, snoozing away. In that moment Idara envied the cat.

“It’s centred around Stark tower,” Idara told Barney as she scratched him behind the ears, “they just finished taking the whole thing off the grid. It has its own power source, maybe that’s what the invaders want? I wonder-“

Everything stopped as the same image was beamed onto every screen. Tony Stark intercepted a missile over the city and guided up, up towards the portal, before disappearing into the void. There was dead silence both on the TV and in Idara’s RV. Her breath was caught in her throat. Even Barney tensed under her touch.

The portal closed, the invaders slumping to the ground like a switch had been flicked and the sky returning to a light blue colour.

“He’s gone,” Idara frowned, “Tony Stark…he’s-“

“Ladies and gentlemen our reporter on the ground has spotted something…Jim can we see…” It switched to shaky phone footage tracking a blob hurtling downwards.

“He’s falling too fast, he’s not moving!” Someone on the TV gasped. “Someone needs to-“

The Hulk leapt through the air, catching Stark. Everything went black as the newscasters argued amongst themselves. Idara wasn’t a massive fan of Tony Stark. Sure he’d done a lot for clean energy and the Iron Man suit was amazing but he operated under his own rules and he had inherited his fortune before building it up with blood money from arms deals. In that moment though her heart was hammering.

“Folks I can tell you that Tony Stark is alive! He is with the other heroes who have brought an end to the invasion of New York. It’s over, it’s all going to be okay.” With that the woman burst into tears and Idara had to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand. A shout from outside tore her attention away from the screen and Earl came running towards the RV, arms held high.

_It’s over, it’s going to be okay._

Idara declined their offers for food and drink. The invasion may have been over but there were urgent questions that needed to be answered.Someone had led that attack but the Internet had been scrubbed clean of most of the footage captured by people in the ground. There were also reports that the day before something had happened in Germany but that the police response had been overridden by a different party. Captain America had been spotted but just like with new York it was proving hard to track anything down. All Idara had been able to find was a photo of a man in green leather and a gold helmet.

“See that,” she pointed to the picture, Barney curled up in her arms, “I think this guy was running point in New York. Germany was a warm up, or they needed something. Looks like the information blackout is centred around an opera house but…a ha yeah! See this Barney? Break in at a lab nearby. Could be a distraction or they needed someone to give them access to the lab and that person was at the opera. Question is what. That set up at Stark tower had to be pretty sophisticated to open a portal to another part of the universe Barney, they might need some serious gear.”

Barney yawned and hopped out of Idara’s arms, heading to the couch at the front of the RV to curl up.

New Mexico last year, Germany yesterday, then a massive invasion of New York. It had to be connected. It had taken weeks to get anyone in Puente Antiguo to talk to her and the entire time Idara was there she had kept getting glimpses of people in suits hanging around on street corners or following her down the street. She didn’t really want to go back but it would be easier to get to than New York.

“Buckle up Barney.”

The sun was beginning to set as Idara said goodbye to Earl and his wife and headed onto the road. By now Betty was awake too and she and Barney were in a fluffy puddle in the passenger’s seat. The radio was almost entirely news but there was very little new to report on the attack. The only thing of note was that Earth’s new heroes apparently had a name: The Avengers.

“Who came up with that?” Idara snorted and the cats purred in response. “Yeah it’s not exactly…the hell?”

The sky in front of the RV crackled with blue electricity. Fissures of luminous light began to fan out as the figure of a man feel through the air and landed in the road. Idara slammed her feet on the breaks, heart pounding. The light began to fade but the man remained, something in his hands glowed but he was still.

“Don’t move guys.”

Outside the air was cold but the road underneath was warm enough for Idara to feel it through her sneakers.

“You…” The man from Germany was still dressed in green leather but the helmet was gone. A contraption covered his mouth but it has cracked and come loose, probably when he feel through the portal. A chain hung loosely from his hands in which he clasped a glowing, blue cube. Without think Idara turned him over to check for injuries. His face was covered in cuts and bruises but she couldn’t feel any broken bones. A rattling breath escaped his lips. He was alive, bleeding in the middle of the road but alive.

So what the hell was Idara supposed to do with him?


	2. Episode Two: The Battle Of New York, Part Two

Idara couldn’t just leave him in the middle of the road. For one thing he looked badly injured and for another this guy was involved somehow with the attack on New York. She checked he was breathing and then with a sigh of relief looked for any open wounds or signs of bleeding. Moving him could cause further damage but driving off felt irresponsible. Idara fumbled for her phone but as she began to dial 911 a hand shot out and clasped her wrist.

The man stared at her with ice blue eyes that struggled to focus, his grip tight.

“He’s coming.”

The man’s voice was raspy and tremulous. He was afraid. The man who had lead an army of aliens to conquer the world was afraid.

“Who? Who’s coming?”

“He won’t…ugh…failure…have to go..”

“You’re injured you need a hospital,” Idara said and instead of struggling against the man’s grip, she used it to ease him onto his side. He moved with her, like he wasn’t aware of being guided. Judging by the terror in his eyes he was far too preoccupied.

“I’ll heal…can’t go anywhere he’ll find me…need to hide…got to hide.”

The man’s grip loosened and he slumped back down, unconscious. Holy fuck she was in trouble. For a moment Idara couldn’t move as her brain ran through every possible implication behind what she’d just learned. The Battle Of New York had been masterminded by someone else, someone with power and resources obviously. Someone who had terrified those under him and most frightening of all someone who hadn’t got what they wanted.

Danger. Everyone on the planet could be in mortal danger, Idara realised, starting with the unconscious man at her feet.

* * *

It was like being underwater in a vast, dark lake. Blackness stretched all around Loki and his body felt strange. He was in pain but it had dulled. For what felt like eons he floated, a soft rumbling sound his only companion. He wasn’t afraid, which struck Loki as strange but it had been so long since he felt safe anywhere that he didn’t want to probe at the feeling, in case it vanished. At some point a warm weight settled on his chest and a low humming accompanied the soft rumble. It was oddly calming and so for the longest time Loki was content to just lay there until slowly the void around him lightened from black to a muddy grey and then a soft orange.

I’m in a bed, he realised slowly. The weight on his chest was from something small and soft sitting there. He felt so weak that Loki didn’t think he could even open his eyes but it didn’t feel like he had any broken bones or internal damage. What was the last thing he remembered?

He grabbed the cube, he had to run, he had to find somewhere to hide. But before that he remembered Thor and a group of people, he remembered fighting and shouting but it was hazy. He remembered a green beast and he remembered the Chitauri and the glint of their awful mechanical forms in a city. It was a city he hadn’t recognised but for some reason Loki had known he had to be there. Something burned at the edges of his consciousness and nausea overwhelmed him.

Thanos had taken over. That infernal sceptre had been placed in Loki’s hands and from that moment he had been a prisoner in his own body, unable to resist the titan. Hate and fear had pulsed through Loki, driving every move. Thor…Thor had reached out but it had been to drag Loki back to Asgard in chains. Always a prisoner. 

Was he a prisoner now? The though pierced through the mental fog. He’d escaped from Thor’s friends - what had they called themselves? Oh yes…The Avengers, how novel - but had Thanos’ people found him? Unlikely. If they had Loki wouldn’t be in a bed he would be being tortured by Ebony Maw, his skin peeled off, his mind invaded, every nerve on fire until he begged for the release of death.

After deliberation Loki opened his eyes and stared straight into another set. Those eyes were golden with slit pupils, set in a dark, furry face.

Why was there a cat sitting on him?

The cat sniffed him and rubbed its cheek against Loki’s chin before jumping off him and allowing him to assess his surroundings. It was a vessel of some sort. There was a workstation to the side with screens and primitive equipment that the cat had chosen as its perch and opposite was a small food preparation area. There seemed to be more further on but Loki didn’t have the strength to push himself up so he could see better. He could turn his head in the other direction and make out the cockpit. The driver wasn’t visible but Loki could see snatches of the world rolling past the window. It looked like sparse desert and every so often there would be a sign, maybe a tree.

Midgard. Loki hadn’t made it off Midgard. Norn’s teeth he was in trouble.

The vessel stopped and the driver headed towards him. A young woman, she did not appear outwardly threatening but one thing that had become abundantly clear in the short time Loki had been on Earth was that humans were underestimated at his peril. She’d managed to capture and transport him and he was in a highly weakened state so he was extra vulnerable.

Despite this Loki stared her down. If he was going die here he would at least fight against it with what little strength he had left.

“Okay here’s what I know versus what I think is going on,” the woman announced, perching at the end of his bed. “I know the attack on New York was ordered by someone else. I know they’re an alien, I know they’re powerful and I know you’re scared of him. I know that the cube you used to beam yourself here is alien in origin but there’s records of it being on Earth since before World War Two. But it’s been here a lot longer based on some digging I’ve been doing since I picked you up.”

Loki’s mouth fell upon as the woman looked at him in triumph. He’d done it again, he’d completely under estimated the human. The woman leaned forward, clearly buoyed by her success.

“Now here’s what I think - feel free to jump in at anytime to correct me, its an evolving thesis - I think that whoever was behind this attack sent you here under some measure of control, either physical or psychological, maybe both. I think it’s had such a detrimental impact on your body that you can’t move now. All your energy is being redirected into your alien healing abilities.

“Furthermore I think that New York wasn’t your first contact with the people of Earth. You were in Germany the day before and you had a hand in the incident in New Mexico last year. Oh you didn’t know where that was?”

Loki hadn’t realised he looked confused and he would have kicked himself had he been able to move.

“A mechanical creature attacked a small town there last year. Or more specifically it attacked a man who was in that town. A man who looks like another alien visitor, Thor. Maybe you know him? He was at the battle of New York too. Has become an overnight sensation to the point that no one is asking questions about how the entirety of Norse mythology is based on a space empire we didn’t realise we were a part of!”

Loki gritted his teeth. Of course Thor was the hero of the story. 

“How long have I been here?” Loki croaked, not wanting to think about Thor or Thanos or anything that led to him being on Earth.

“You appeared on the road the night before last,” she explained. “You’ve been out cold since and you told me not to take you to a hospital so I found a nearby RV park and then left this morning.”

He’d been lying there nearly two days. That was two days for SHIELD to track him or for Thanos to dispatch someone to Earth to make him pay for his failure. It was two days lost. Loki twisted and tried to push himself up only for a wave of fatigue to crash over him.

“You’re too weak to move,” said the woman, “they really did a number on you huh?” Unbidden she moved forward to help Loki sit up a little straighter, the bed creaking under him. He didn’t have the strength to shoo her away and part of him didn’t want to. It was so long since he’d experienced touch without it being accompanied by discomfort or pain.

“Thank you,” he mumbled. 

“Idara. Idara Etienam,” she held out a hand and after a pause Loki shook it awkwardly.

“Loki of…” he frowned, his throat suddenly feeling tight. “Formerly of Asgard.” Now, who knew? Odinson. Laufeyson. Asgard. Jotunheim. Nothing fit anymore.

“So you do know Thor,” said Idara. “How much of the rest did I get right?”

“Surprisingly all of it,” Loki sat back against the pillows, “I suppose my face has been given to every form of law enforcement on the planet? You’re taking a terrible risk here.”

“Not really,” Idara said. She grabbed her laptop off the table and fired it up, shifting so Loki could see the screen. She was closer to him than would have been appropriate in the Asgardian court but humans were so informal. “There was an information blackout during and immediately after the attack. Official statements from SHIELD, the World Council and Governor of New York say that a force called the Chitauri exploited “unusual and rare inter-dimensional anomalies” to open up a portal to our world and launch an impromptu attack. Our newly discovered nearest allies, The Asgardians were able to send their best warrior to aid us and so the Asgardians are now in charge of making sure those anomalies don’t occur again.”

The screen was filled with images from New York from which Loki was conspicuously absent. Only the Chitauri, numerous and faceless to the humans were the aggressors in the story being told. Then there was footage of Thor and his new friends. The Iron Man grinned at the camera, signing pictures and taking photographs with the crowd of people gathering outside his tower. The soldier could be seen too but he didn’t look comfortable at all with the attention. The assassins and Banner were not there which was not surprising. 

“Ludicrous,” Loki coughed. “The attack was planned and carefully co-ordinated. There was nothing anomalous about it.”

“It was the cube, that’s how you got here and how you brought the Chitauri to New York,” said Idara. Loki’s eyes narrowed, his entire body tensing.

“Where is it?”

“Safe,” she said easily, like they were talking about the weather. Did she really think she had the upper hand here? “Look you can barely move so you’re not a threat to me right now and I suspect that we want the same thing.”

“Which is?” Loki asked, his voice dripping with acid. Idara’s face softened, her eyes earnest. It wasn’t the aggression that Loki had been expecting and that unsettled him. 

“For the person that sent you here to stay away. To be safe. Am I right?” Loki swallowed the lump in his throat. “I knew it. I knew there was something up with the invasion. The details don’t add up, you had every advantage, it should have been a walk in the park.”

“I…was under the influence of another…artefact,” Loki said carefully, “the cube has many siblings. One of which was in the sceptre I was given after…” The breath caught in his throat as he flashed back to the metal room with Ebony Maw.

“You were hurt.” It wasn’t a question and Loki dared not look at Idara and see pity in her eyes.

“Let’s just say I underwent an extensive conditioning regime and when I was pliable but had regained some of my functionality I was sent to Earth with the sceptre. It allowed me to sway people to the cause but a side effect of using it is cognitive instability, paranoia and mind fog.”

“So the sceptre was controlling you as much as you were controlling others.” Loki nodded. “How did you get here? The cube was on Earth.”

“SHIELD were running experiments I believe, trying to open a gateway across space. I simply walked through an open door.”

“Of course it was SHIELD,” Idara said with disgust. “Putting the whole planet at risk for power. Typical.”

“So they aren’t allies of yours?”

“Are you kidding?” Idara began to scroll furiously through her files on the laptop, bringing up pages of redacted documents and legal notices. “They want to stop people like me from finding the truth. The world was just attacked by an alien army and they’ve removed evidence of that from the internet. They’re keeping us in the dark about what could end up being one of the most significant events in human history. That’s not what the good guys do!”

Interesting. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, Loki mused, and she was right, he was no threat to anyone in this state. His magic was depleted and it would take him a while to recover. He had friends or allies here. He could explain to Thor, warn him and Asgard about Thanos but even as the thought entire his head he knew it was futile.

“I owe you a debt Idara Etienam,” Loki said. “You could have left me to die there or handed me over to the authorities but you did not. You have my gratitude and my loyalty until such time as my debt is repaid.” Idara blinked in surprise and then sat back a little to study him.

“Just like that?”

“I assure you having me in your debt is no small thing.”

“I’m sure it isn’t.” A ghost of a smile tugged at Idara’s lips and Loki couldn’t help but mirror it. Then her face turned serious. “I’m not going to ask what happened when those people had you. I know that’s probably painful to talk about but I do need to know if we’re in immediate danger. Me meaning us two or the Earth as a whole.”

“They’ve lost the sceptre and the cube and Stark obliterated the Chitauri forces by redirecting that missile.” Loki had to admit it had been an impressive feat. “The Mad Titan will not give up so easily though.”

“The Mad Titan. He sounds like a treat.”

“He believes it’s his cosmic destiny to bring harmony to the universe by wiping out half its inhabitants and thus restoring balance.”

“Bal-are you serious?”

“Deadly.”

“Okay eventually that tidbit definitely needs to be passed on to someone in authority. Question is who can we trust though?”

“Is there truly no one on this planet that can be counted on?” Loki asked.

“I mean they aren’t all terrible,” Idara said, “it’s just…most of them.”

“Fantastic. I wish the cube had been able to take me somewhere a little more f _unctional_. Speaking of which, I expect the Tesseract to be returned to me.”

“Tesseract huh? I’ll have to add that to my research notes,” Idara said as she stood. “You should get some rest. I’m going to keep driving while you do and then I’ll stop when it gets dark.”

“Where are we going?”

“A little town in New Mexico called Puente Antiguo. It’s where Thor first showed up, along with that robot friend of his.”

Without another word she headed back to the cockpit and a few moments later the engine started up again. Loki sat back, not sure whether he felt dismayed or exhilarated. He hadn’t know anything about where Thor had landed on Earth, not even the name of the town. It had seemed so inconsequential compared to everything else that had been going on. No one there would recognise him but still. Fatigue pricked at his consciousness despite the hurricane of thoughts battering his mind and he shuffled down a little. 

The cat returned, scampering across the floor and settling down next to Loki on the bed, followed by another cat, this one pitch black with glass green eyes. Within moments they were fast asleep next to him and soon Loki joined them.

* * *

The road unfolded in front of Idara with a sense of promise, anticipation thick in the air. She didn’t have much of a plan, not really. It was the same plan she always had: find out the truth. There was an alien tyrant who wanted some powerful artefacts that were on Earth. Why were they here? Who had them? Idara had a theory about that last one and it led to another burning question: what was SHIELD up to? 

Whatever it was Idara was going to find out with Loki’s help. Her gut told her that their interests aligned and though she was well aware that he was dangerous, the fact he’d been coerced into the invasion made her think that he could be trusted. Maybe she was being naive but Idara’s gut was right more than it was wrong. 

She would soon find out.

 _“Well truth seekers. That’s it for another episode of_ Quest For The Truth _. The day has been saved, the battle one and we can all go to sleep at night secure in the knowledge that the heroes are watching over us. It’s a fairytale ending. But remember that fairytales were created to warn us of the dangers of our would, of the people who would harm us and the threats that we can’t quite make out. Sometimes the villain isn’t the monster with sharp teeth and sometimes the hero isn’t the shining prince. It’s up to us to discern the truth from the story told to placate us.”_


	3. Episode Three: Strangers in Puente Antiguo

_Welcome back to Quest For The Truth dear listeners. I know we’ve all been a little…preoccupied lately what with the whole alien invasion and formation of everyone’s favourite superhero team but we all know that crises make great distractions. New York was a hell of a distraction but it’s time to dig under the surface. Some old friends of ours made a lot of noise when the Chitauri attacked and the super secret spy agency SHIELD isn’t so secret anymore. Or at least it’s existence isn’t secret, what they’re doing is another matter…_

“So to recap,” Loki said leaning forward after finishing his danish, “You are an errant knight of sorts, travelling your realm in search of mysteries to solve, helping people on the fringes of society and exposing the dark deeds of those in power. However in addition you are also a bard composing stories of your deeds and spreading to them to the world via your…”

“Podcast,“ Idara finished, “and I guess you could put it in that slightly Dungeons and Dragons-esque way.”

“Dungeons and Dragons?”

“It’s a game…you know what that’s a whole other conversation. Excuse me please could we get the check?” The dimpled waitress smiled at them and nodded. The diner had become a regular haunt of Idara’s on her return to Puente Antiguo and once Loki was strong enough to walk around without passing out or collapsing in a heap he started joining her for breakfast every morning. It had been the apricot danishes that had done it, Idara was convinced. He’d eyed the first one she had brought back with suspicion and the look on his face as he’d bitten into it had been nothing short of precious.

They been in town four weeks with Loki still bed bound for the first half of that. He had periodically filled in a lot of the blanks round the battle of New York, though he was wary. It reinforced Idara’s theory that something terrible had happened to him while he had been with Thanos. His fascination with everything about Earth convinced her he wasn’t an active threat. Each night she would sit and work on her evidence while Loki watched the news and it would inevitably lapse into a question and answer session on everything from global politics and history to culture, language and human behaviour. Loki drank in everything Idara told him and then she set up one of her old tablets so he could look things up online. Each morning she would be greeted with more questions.

“You wouldn’t have thought that this planet was invaded a couple of weeks ago,” Loki said, looking around the diner.

“People are resilient,” Idara said, grabbing her purse. 

“Or in denial.”

“Or they trust that the people in charge, the people with power, are going to protect them.”

“You don’t believe that,” Loki said, head cocked to one side as he regarded her. There was something in his gaze, Loki always looked like he was studying everything, getting the measure and judging.

“Not in the least,” Idara grinned and it was mirrored on Loki’s face. Despite everything leading up to their frankly bizarre meeting, she couldn’t help but like him and she was beginning to suspect that was mutual. At the very least he didn’t distrust her and that was something.

The waitress brought the check and Idara laid some money down, including a generous tip. Before they headed out she looked around. It was the same regulars as every single day they’d eaten there. 

“You’re always working,” Loki said, falling into step beside her. With his newly acquired Midgardian clothes he looked like absolutely human, Idara noted. Albeit an extreme handsome human, with a permanent glint in his eye. 

Idara had ordered clothes online though there had been some debate. Idara was keen that Loki keep a low profile and his…expensive tastes ran somewhat counter to that. Since he could no longer magic himself up a suit, she had suggested something comfortable and casual. In the end she had ordered some dark, slim cut jeans and a range of soft tailored shirts and a jacket to smarten the whole look up. And he did look very smart.

“One thing you learn doing what I do is that people love to talk so diners, bars and other communal places are great for overhearing gossip.”

“It’s the same on Asgard,” Loki said after a moment. “In taverns and at feasts you can always hear the most salacious gossip and secrets bubble to the surface.”

“So it’s universal…” Loki rarely mentioned his home and Idara didn’t like to press. She had manage to gather some clues from what Loki had let slip but there was still a lot to be uncovered there. “Anyway sometimes what’s just as interesting is what isn’t said or in this case who isn’t there.”

They arrived at the RV and Idara switched on her computer before pulling out her phone and handing it to Loki. He swiped through the photos with a frown.

“You’ve been taking pictures of the patrons?”

“Yep, keep going back. I’ve been to that diner every day since we arrived and taken note of everyone who was a regular.”

“These men,” Loki held out the phone, “they stopped eating there two days ago.”

“They did. Now everyone else in that place was a local. We have some farmers, the guy who runs the local watering hole, the teacher for the elementary school on the edge of town, the people who run the pet shop, and some construction workers. Those two men aren’t locals.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been making conversation with people. Casual stuff like ‘good morning’ and ‘how’s your day’ and then asking for directions. Those two didn’t want to engage, in fact they went out of their way not to talk to me.”

Loki sat down on the edge of the day bed, still folded out. Betty scampered across the floor and leapt into his lap, waiting for her head scratches. Loki obliged, continuing.

“What makes you think they aren’t just rude?”

“The waitress doesn’t know them and she knows everyone in town. Waitresses and barmaids are some of the best sources of information you can find,” Idara said. “She also told me they turned up the day after the attack on New York.”

Idara turned back to her computer while Loki sat thoughtfully stroking Betty behind the ears. Sunlight streamed through the windows of the RV and Barney had stretched out on the dashboard, snoozing away happily. They were parked in a small vacant lot just off mainstream, tucked away so they couldn’t be disturbed but close enough to the centre of town. 

It was impressive how quickly and efficiently Idara had got the measure of the little town. He knew she’d been here before but evidently SHIELD had swept through after Thor’s appearance and the people had been wary. Despite that they trusted Idara and people were always willing to speak freely with her.

“What are you looking for?” Loki asked, leaning forward. Betty chirped and wriggled, making herself comfortable as he moved.

“Property records,” Idara said. “We’ve lucked out, lots of small towns only have hard copies but after the -was it called The Destroyer? - after that they digitised everything. Specifically I want to see if there are any seemingly abandoned buildings in town or anything purchased under a phone name or a dummy corporation or something like that.” Her eyes never left the screen as she scanned through pages and pages, moving too fast for Loki to read them.

“For those of us not proficient in Midgardian?”

“I’m nearly 100% sure those guys are SHIELD,” Idara flashed him a grin. “Which means they have a base in town. And it’s there!”

With a few clicks Idara brought a map up beside the document. Loki was familiar enough with the area by now to know that it was somewhere in the desert outside of town. 

Actually…

“I’ve been there,” he said suddenly. Betty meowed in protest as Loki moved to stand behind Idara. “There was a SHIELD base there. They built it around Mjolnir. It looked temporary though. I would have guessed it didn’t stay up after Thor took the hammer back.”

“You got into a SHIELD base built around a super weapon?”

“Magic,” Loki shrugged. “So the base is still there?”

“Not the one you broke into.” Her tone may have an attempt at disapproval but there was a wicked grin on Idara’s face that said otherwise. “Three months after SHIELD supposedly left someone bought the land and built a warehouse there. It looks like they paid their utility bills for the next year or so and then all activity stopped.”

“How is this connected to your mystery men?”

“When they arrived someone started paying the bills again and it looks like they’re using a lot of power, way more than last time.” Idara looked up at Loki. “How do you feel about maybe driving by and checking it out?”

Idara’s information said the men were gone and her over abundance of enthusiasm hid the fact that she was cautious and level headed. This wouldn’t be like being roped into a Bilgesnipe hunt with Thor and his witless friends. This would be a stealthy operation requiring cunning.

“Let’s go,” Loki grinned.

Loki had gotten accustomed to driving around in a home on wheels every quickly. Not only was it comfortable but it meant they could bring all of Idara’s equipment with them to the warehouse.

It sat alone in the desert looking nondescript and a little shabby. It was a metal shell painted a sickly grey green with a lopsided, barbed wire fence all the way round.

“Do you see those?” Idara pointed to some marks in the ground outside the doorway. “Tire tracks. It looks like someone left in a hurry.” They parked the RV and Idara shoved her tablet, a small leather case and an odd looking little box into a satchel. “You guys behave,” she added to Betty and Barney who had formed a fluffy puddle on the chair by the desk as soon as Idara had vacated it. The cats meowed in response and then went right back to sleep.

“Whoever was using this place did a good job of making it look like a wreck,” Loki noted as they approached the warehouse. Idara snapped some pictures of the tire tracks before examining the lock. “Not much in the way of security either,” he added.

“I could pick this in less than a minute,” Idara said, “but that will be harder,” she added pointing to a loose panel at the side. When she shifted it, underneath there was a key pad, shinier and newer looking than the rest of the building. The lock was just for show, someone didn’t want anyone getting inside. 

Loki opened his mouth to ask how they were supposed to get inside but before the words came out Idara had produced the odd looking box from her bag. With the flick of a switch on the side it began to make a buzzing sound that got higher in pitch the close Idara held it to the key pad. Pressed up against it, the buzzing turned into a wail until stopping abruptly as a heavy, metallic thud reverberated through the door.

“It interrupts the electrical signals going to the pad,” Idara explained as she began to pick the lock, her tone easy as if she was commenting on the weather.

“Fascinating.” Though Loki missed his teleportation abilities there seemed to be no shortage of earthly magics at hand.

The first thing they came to upon entering was rows and rows of shelving stacked high with boxes. Despite labels for goods as varied as car parts and dried food, they were filled with rubbish like scrap paper and empty packaging. Behind the shelves were where things got interesting.

“Is that where Mjolnir was?” Idara nodded to the crater in the ground. There was a barrier around it and tables set up that looked to have been abruptly cleared. A few scraps on note paper with hastily scrawled equations littered the floor.

“That was it. Thor got it back though so they must have thought something could still be gleaned from where it landed.”

“It could have left something in the earth.” Idara picked up the scattered pieces of paper and slipped them in her bag. “Or maybe some of the energy lingered afterwards. What I don’t get it why dismantle your base and then build a new one? Especially because it seems like SHIELD viewed Thor as an ally after this. Why not just ask about Mjolnir?”

“The Bifrost bridge was…damaged. He wasn’t contactable,” Loki said. “But that doesn’t answer any of your other questions.”

Something felt wrong and they were both acutely aware of it. Silently, they moved around the back of the warehouse but anything that could give a clue as to why SHIELD had been there had been taken with them. That included what looked like some pretty big machinery, based on the indentations in the floor and the uneven dust patches. 

“There’s something wrong with the floor here,” said Loki, “it’s moving.” Crouching down he managed to prize up one of the boards and instead of earth underneath there was metal. Idara fished her box out of her bag once more and it began to make the same sound as with the main door, followed by the same thud as it unlocked.

There were steps leading down to a dark basement. Idara shone the torch on her phone down there, holding her breath as she half expected someone to emerge from the gloom. 

“It doesn’t look big,” she said, peering down, “maybe it’s a storage room? Here, hold this.” Idara passed Loki the phone and tentatively headed down the steps.

The room was musty and dark. There was a desk in the centre with a chair either side, bolted to the floor. Idara’s skin prickled.

“What do you see?” 

“It’s not a storage room,” Idara said, “It looks more like an interrogation room. There isn’t any other furniture but there was something on the walls. I can see where it was ripped off and there’s-“

“Idara?” Loki frowned and scrambled down the steps. Idara stood frozen in front of the far wall which was splattered with dried blood. “Evidently they didn’t get the answers they wanted.”

“SHIELD killed someone here.” Idara’s voice shook. “Why? Why would they do that?”

“They’ve written something, down there away from the blood,” Loki crouched down. “ ‘He was sent away to Maveth but he shall return and we shall rise once more’ “

“Maveth?”

“A planet light years away from Earth,” Loki straightened up. “It was once a thriving centre. Multiple civilisations called it home but suddenly all life was wiped out. No one is sure why. It was a paradise and overnight it descended into chaos, the people began to wipe each other out until no one was left.”

“Who was sent there?’ Idara asked and Loki shook his head. “We should leave. Fast.”

Their relief was palpable has they half ran towards the entrance, bursting into the light and fresh air. It was like emerging into another world.

“I took pictures,” Idara explained as they headed on shaky legs back to the RV. “But I’m not sure what they’d prove.”

“There is no way anyone on earth should have heard of Maveth,” Loki said, “it’s been mostly forgotten by most spacefaring cultures. It’s a barren wasteland, a dangerous one at that.”

“Dangerous how?”

“Those who journey there never return.”

Something heavy and foreboding hung over them as they drove back into town. The road was deserted and Idara wasn’t sure if that was disturbing or comforting. Her heartbeat had settled and the prickle of danger rippling over her skin had subsided. In the passenger seat Loki sat with a farmer look in his eyes, brow furrowed and hands clasped together. Idara wasn’t sure should could bear the silence any longer.

“What are you thinking?”

“That the story being told is that Earth’s first contact with the wider universe was the Chitauri invasion but that’s a lie. Your people, or at least some of your people have and I would guess that the contact neither began nor ended with Maveth,” Loki said. “SHIELD has been around for a long time yes?”

“It was founded after World War Two out of the Strategic Science Reserve,” Idara explained. “So at least seventy years.”

“During which time humanity began preparing for and succeeding in travelling to the moon, you sent out messages in hopes of them reaching other civilisations and advanced technologically at a faster rate than at any other time in history. Perhaps SHIELD was able to get a helping hand?”

Instead of heading back to the vacant lot, Idara drove to the diner. She was in desperate need of caffeine and sugar.

“Whatever SHIELD was doing in that base wasn’t to further scientific knowledge.” Idara rubbed her eyes with the heel of her hand. 

“No, clearly not.”

“I’m going to do some digging online. Secrets have a way of surfacing so there must be some hint of Maveth somewhere even if it’s minuscule,” said Idara, “in the meantime SHIELD have moved out of Puente Antiguo and I think we should do the same.”

If they hung around too long they might start attracting unwanted attention. There was also the small matter of Idara’s day job. She handed Loki the tablet, opening her inbox.

“I get emails from people all over the country with cases they think I should look into. Pick one.”

“Excuse me?”

“I have to earn a living. Uncovering government conspiracies is not cheap. Since we’re in this together now you get to pick where we go next.” Loki blinked and scrolled through the emails, his face unreadable.

“Some of these people are insane.”

Idara rolled her eyes.

“I’m going to get us some coffee and danishes for the road, pick somewhere before I get back.”

“Does this mean I am going to feature on your show?” Loki asked. He didn’t look put off by the idea at all.

“We’ll see.”

 _The truth comes in waves listeners. It’s rare that a story is told in one go. Instead in cases like this we chip away at the mystery piece by piece. Sometimes we need to leave it for a while and return later, armed with better tools and more knowledge. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to stop or we’re any less dedicated to our_ Quest For The Truth.


	4. Episode Four: The Hitchhiker

_Welcome back listeners. Did you know many urban legends have their roots in real events? The Hookman was inspired in part by Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946 and the stories of poisoned Halloween candy come from the 1974 murder of a young boy by his father who wanted to claim the life insurance. The seeds of these stories were grounded in reality and they sprouted into something that takes many forms. It’s a reminder to all of us to not dismiss the fantastical out of hand…_

In hindsight it may have been better to at least give Loki an idea of the relevant distances of the various potential stories when Idara had told him to pick what they investigated next. He’d chosen an email from some students from a college in Maryland who were convinced there was some kind of cryptid living in the forest on campus. It had been an intriguing message but the drive would take several days. 

“I miss the Bifrost,” Loki had sighed dramatically as Idara had traced the route out on her maps.

“I miss making a living,” she countered dryly. “I need to carry on making episodes and content so we need to make sure the trip is a productive one.”

Her Patreon account had seen an influx of patrons and her social media following had grown exponentially since the Battle of New York. Idara had done some phone interviews with TV stations not only across the US but even some international ones. It was exciting and daunting in equal measure. Mostly Idara now felt enormous pressure to deliver while not capitalising on a tragedy.

Others hadn’t gotten that particular memo though. The community was saturated by everyone who thought they were an expert in the paranormal now.

“I assume this means we need to post more pictures of your cats,” Loki said with a raised eyebrow. They had spent most of yesterday fixing a blown tire (or rather Idara had fixed the tire, Loki had stood and watched with interest, lamenting how much easier everything would be with magic on this planet) and Idara was determined to drive as far as she could to make up for time. The sun was beginning to set and the two cats in question were on the fold up sofa, dozing.

“The internet loves cats,” shrugged Idara, “but I was thinking of doing more Q and As. Maybe a special twice-monthly episode for subscribers? I’ve always wanted to do a feature on ghost stories and urban legends. Do you have those on Asgard?”

“Every culture has its own ghost stories,” Loki said, “but some of our monsters are a little more real than yours and when the realm of the dead can be visited by those who aren’t faint of heart then ghost stories take on a new form.”

“Wait a sec.” Idara half wanted to slam on the breaks right there. “What do you mean the realm of the dead can be visited?”

“Helheim,” Loki replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s one of the nine realms. So is Valhalla of course, though that makes for a somewhat more pleasant destination. Even though all the Valkyrie are gone now…”

That would take some unpacking, Idara thought shaking her head. This was the most Loki had spoken about his home and she hoped he would continue, instead he turned the conversation to what constituted a ghost story on Earth.

_So much for sharing._

“There’s loads. My Grandma used to tell me and my sister the story of Madam Koi Koi when we were little!” Loki shifted forward slightly, looking interested despite himself. “It’s a Nigerian ghost story about a teacher who haunts boarding schools. Madam Koi Koi was a beautiful woman who worked as a teacher. She always wore bright red heels that would make the sound “koi koi” as she walked down the hall. But Madam Koi Koi was also cruel. She would torment the students she taught, even beating them. She was hated by all the students. One day she beat a girl so badly that Madam Koi Koi injured her ear. The school had enough and she was fired.”

“As Madam Koi Koi drove away from the school she was seething. Maybe she wasn’t paying attention to the road or maybe she just didn’t care but whatever happened, she got into a terrible car accident. As she lay dying she swore revenge on the school and all the students.”

“Ever since then students have woken up during the night, hearing the sound of footsteps in their dormitories after lights out. Koi koi. Koi koi. Like she’s watching and waiting for revenge!”

Loki blinked as Idara swept her free hand up with a flourish.

“So this was a warning not to attend school?” He asked, confused.

“What? No. It was just meant to be scary. I think humans like to be scared in safe ways if that makes sense. When I went to science camp as a kid we would always tell ghost stories round the campfire on the last night and there was a counsellor who told the same story every year.”

“As a form of entertainment?” Loki shifted in the seat, getting comfortable.

“Yeah it’s fun to be scared sometimes! So this story was about a girl who is hired to babysit for some neighbours right? She puts the children to bed, reads them a story and then goes down stairs to watch television and do some homework.” Her voice was low and quiet, a grin on her face. Loki looked at her incredulously but Idara wasn’t discouraged. The sun had disappeared below the horizon and cast an eerie red glow on everything.

“Then the phone rings but when she answers it’s just heavy breathing.” To emphasise the point, Idara made her own breaths more laboured. “She hangs up, thinking it’s just some prankster and goes back to watching television. Then later the phone rings again!”

“More heavy breathing?” Loki asked.

“No. This time there’s a voice, raspy and rough. He says…have you checked on the children?” So the babysitter runs upstairs and the children are asleep, safe and sound. About an hour goes by and the babysitter is getting sleepy but just before she can drop off the phone rings a third time.” Loki looked like he was about to say something but Idara continued. “It’s that same voice and he asks her again, “have you checked the children”. Now she’s getting scared so she calls the police and they tell her to hold on, they’ll check it out. The babysitter feels kind of silly now, she’s called the police, making a big fuss over nothing and the kids’ parents are going to be pissed. Suddenly the place officer comes back to the phone!

“They say you have to go, get out of there right now! The phone calls are coming from inside the house!”

But the babysitter says nothing. The officer tries again, “go, you have to go!” And then a voice says…”have you checked on the children?””

Loki starred at her blankly.

“That’s it? This was told to you for fun? As a child? That’s terrible!”

“It’s an old one. No one believes it actually happened but when you’re twelve and sharing a cabin with six other girls and someone decides its funny to lay under one of the beds and starting whispering “have you checked on the children?” it seems a lot scarier.” That had been the last year Idara had been allowed to go to science camp as tackling a potential serial killer wasn’t a good excuse apparently for giving Frankie Allan a black eye no matter how much Idara had argued he wasn’t supposed to be hiding in the girls’ cabin anyway. 

“On Asgard, such stories are cautionary tales, for children’s growth,” Loki said. Idara looked at him pointedly.

“Okay then. Scare me.”

“I will! Eons ago there was a warlord who had conquered many lands and by his side fought his daughter. Together they defeated every enemy, brought world after world under their rule and forged an empire that could not be toppled.”

“The daughter was the greatest warrior ever to live. Some said she held the power over death itself but her bloodlust grew and grew until one day the warlord struck her down with tears in his eyes and flowers grew where they fell. In his grief he renounced his conquering ways and dedicated his life to peace and prosperity. The end.” There was silence for a moment, Loki glanced side ways and saw Idara, open mouthed and completely stunned. “What?”

“That’s messed up.”

“How?”

“You said these stories have morals right, to teach kids things? What was the moral of that story? Terrible man raises his daughter to be just as terrible but then she’s _too_ terrible and so he kills her and he just gets to go on like he didn’t do anything wrong?”

The sun had disappeared completely, and the inky sky was dotted with the stars. Loki gazed up at them, trying to remember what his father had said about the story when he had told him and Thor it as children. 

“It’s about arrogance and greed,” Loki said uncertainty, his tone framing it as a question rather than an answer. “It’s metaphorical, it didn’t actually happen. It’s not like there was a moral in your story!”

“Because the point is just to scare people!” argued Idara. “You’re not supposed to learn anything from a serial killer hiding in someone’s house.”

“It would be an excellent opportunity to school people on the dangers of not protecting their homes from invaders,” quipped Loki and Idara had to suppress a snort that she wasn’t 100% sure was one of amusement or derision.

“I’m going to have to teach you some better ghost stories,” Idara sighed shaking her head. “There’s one about a ghost that appears if…” Idara’s words trailed off as something ahead of them in the road was caught by the RV’s headlights.

A hitchhiker was standing at the side of the road, arm thrust outwards. She was young but the looks of things, with an oversized coat and a backpack slung over one shoulder, hair scarped back into a messy ponytail with a few wayward strands framing a pointed face.

“Is she in distress?” Loki asked leaning forward. 

“She probably wants a lift somewhere.” Idara stopped the RV and got Loki to wind down the window. “You okay?” Idara called.

“I need to get to Wilmington,” the woman said, “are you headed that way?” According to the satnav it was about two hours from where they were. It looked like a decent place to stop for the night.

“We are,” Idara smiled, “I’m Idara and this is…”

“Luke.” Loki offered the woman a gracious smile before hopping out to offer the woman the front seat with a in incline of the head that could almost be called a bow. Once a prince, always a prince Idara supposed.

“What’s your name?” Idara asked. Up close the woman looked tired, dark circles under wary eyes and dishevelled clothes hidden by the ill fitting coat.

“Rose. I’m making my way to my boyfriend’s place,” she said, quietly, “it’s so nice of you to stop for me. No one else has.”

“How long have you been standing there?” Idara asked with a frown as she started up the RV again. 

“A long time.”

“And people just passed you without offering aid?” Loki asked distastefully. “That wouldn’t happen…where I’m from.” Rose turned round in the seat, looking at Loki in confusion.

“Luke is… European,” Idara explained.

“Are you two on vacation?” Rose asked before her eyes lit up and a smile spread on her face. “A honeymoon?” Loki’s face was blank but Idara caught a question in his eyes as she looked at him in the rearview mirror. Something else to explain later.

“Uh no. We’re working actually, I’m a podcaster.” Rose tilted her head in a silent question. “Like a journalist.”

“Oh wow, that sounds important,” said Rose, “you tell stories huh? What kind?”

Idara tensed. These conversations usually went one of two ways. Either she told people and they made their excuses and got the hell away from her or she got to hear about the time their cousin’s, boyfriend’s, gym teacher’s auntie saw a UFO.

“We solve mysteries,” Loki said smoothly.

“Like murders?” Rose’s voice grew very quiet, her gaze turned towards the open road. “I heard story once about a girl who was murdered. They never found who did it.”

“That’s terrible,” Idara said, “someone you knew?”

“Long ago…”

Looking up in the rear view mirror again Idara and Loki shared a look. The RV felt colder and Idara fiddled with the heating controls while trying to think of something to say.

“What do you do Rose?” Loki asked.

“I wait tables,” she shrugged, not looking back. “Or I did. I’ll need to find something else in Wilmington. Bobby - he’s my boyfriend - says I have a pretty voice. I’d love to sing. I used to sing in church.”

“Could you sing for us now?” Loki asked.

“Don’t let him put you on the spot!” Idara said but Rose smiled, still not looking at them.

_“It was in those western, those fair western shores_

_There lived a young damsel so handsome and fair._

_She was courted by a young man who called her his dear_

_And was known as a trader, a ship carpenter"_

It was folk song about a girl named Polly who loved a sailor who had been called away to sea and she was heartbroken because he had promised to marry her. Before leaving he took her out into the wilderness, far away from anyone.

_“He led her through mountains and valleys so deep,_

_What caused this young damsel to sob and to weep._

_She sobbed and she wept, those words she did say,_

_“I’m afraid to my heart you have led me astray.”_

_“Tis true, tis true,” young William did say_

_“For many long nights I’ve been digging your grave.”_

_When she saw her grave open and the spade lying by,_

_She wrung her poor hands and most bitterly cried._

_“Oh pardon, oh pardon,” pretty Polly did say,_

_“I lived no longer than to become your wife._

_I’ll sail this world round and set you quite free,_

_If you only will pardon my sweet babe-a-nee.”_

_“No pardon, no pardon, there is no time to stand.”_

_And for the time had drew a knife to hand._

_He pierced her through the heart till her life blood it flowed_

_And into the grave her sweet body did throw”_

Idara shivered as Rose’s lilting but reedy voice trailed off. It wasn’t the end of the song. Idara wasn’t sure how she knew that but she did.

“Interesting,” said Loki, dragging the word out which earned him a glare from Idara from the rear view.

“It was beautiful,” she stressed not taking her eyes from Loki’s until his suddenly went wide and he stuttered her name out.

“Idara she’s gone.”

It took a moment for Idara to register that the passenger seat was empty. No sign of Rose or her bag. In a split second Idara slammed her foot on the break, heart pounding as the RV screeched to a halt. Despite Loki’s protests, she jumped out of the RV, jogging round to check Rose hadn’t jumped out of the moving vehicle or slipped away some other way. Loki joined her on teh deserted road, pale and trembling.

“I don’t believe it,” muttered Idara, “the first time I meet a real ghost and I didn’t record it or anything! That’s…argh!”

“That’s your concern?” spluttered Loki. “We just received a visitation from beyond the grave, which could be an omen of death and disaster by the way, and you’re concerned you did not get a chance to interview her?”

“A hitchhiking ghost,” Idara threw her arms wide. “Pretty sure they told us that one at camp too. I don’t think she was a bad omen though. She seemed content to let us be. Maybe Rose liked that you asked her to sing?”

Loki stared at her, mouth open as Idara jogged back to the RV.

“C’mon, we can make Wilmington in a couple hours if we keep going?”

“You’re going to turn this into an episode aren’t you?”

“Maybe…” Idara dragged the word out. “You can’t drive can you?”

“It doesn’t look that hard,” Loki eyed the RV. “I’m not sitting where she sat.”

“That’s my home, you’re not crashing it, and why not?”

“It’s…rude.” When he didn’t elaborate Idara shrugged and let Loki get in the back after making him promise he would start the research while she drove. Idara had made the decision that if Loki was going to tag along then she could put him to use as a research assistant of sorts. He’d picked up the internet frighteningly quickly and Idara had shown him the basics of searching old newspaper archives, census records and other databases. He had a thirst for knowledge that matched her own.

“Look up murders in Wilmington and the surrounding areas. Start within the last…ten years? Her clothes didn’t look too old. Start within the last decade and we’ll go back from there. We know her name and the name of her boyfriend. Bobby.”

“We also know the song,” Loki said, tapping away. A quick search of the lyrics told them it was an old folk song, specifically an American Murder Ballad though there were versions from England. It all meant very little to Loki but he made a note to read more later.

“There’s a belief that ghosts are often tied to Earth because they have unfinished business,” Idara explained. “So Rose may have been making her way to Wilmington when she was killed and that’s why she flagged us down, so we could help her get there.”

“Then why not stay?” Loki asked, “did she object to your driving?”

“Ha ha. I’ve heard some people say that ghosts get stuck in loops. They perform their final actions over and over again with no resolution.”

“Sounds hellish,” Loki muttered. “As far as I can tell nothing is coming up for murder victims called Rose in the last ten years.”

“Try thirty.”

“Hmm.”

“Found something?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. There’s no murder of a woman named Rose but twenty eight years ago the body of a young man was found out here. There’s an article. It says his name was Robert Miller and he was twenty.”

“Bobby?”

“Possibly.” Loki began typing furiously. “Hmmm, there’s another report from a year or so later. This one’s longer. It says "the case was closed due to insufficient evidence though local law enforcement wanted to question a Miss R Waverly, who was the last person to see Williams alive. Waverley claimed to be in relationship with Williams but his family and friends denied any connection. Miss Waverley has not been seen since a fortnight after Williams body was discovered. It is believed she has fled the local area and there are no other suspects at this time.” So we may have just given a ride to a murderous phantom…”

“Next time we pick someone up I’m making sure I record the whole thing,” Idara grumbled.

_On further investigation it turned out that Miss Rosemary Waverley of a little town outside of Wilmington called Two Rivers, had a history of obsessive behaviour and bestowing unwanted attentions on men. Bobby Williams died from blunt force trauma, a vicious attack from behind and police believed the kill site was his home in Wilmington. He may have been eating breakfast when an intruder used a weapon of opportunity from his kitchen to beat him to death. He would have had no idea. Rosemary Waverley was only interviewed once by the police, who initially thought her too meek to beat a man to death. She claimed she was at choir practice at the time of the murder though the choirmaster claimed she hadn’t come to practice in weeks. After that she was never seen again though friends noted at the time she was utterly heartbroken by Bobby’s death._

_Oh and that song? It turns out the earliest versions have a second part where Polly’s ghost finds the sailor on his ship and exacts revenge for his actions…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The stories Idara tells are existing urban legends from the US and Nigeria. You can read the story of Madam Koi Koi [here ](https://www.pulse.ng/gist/madam-koi-koi-the-legend-of-the-dead-teacher-who-haunts-secondary-school-students/es1w4ex) and an overview of The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs [here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_babysitter_and_the_man_upstairs) The song is a real American murder ballad too. You can read the lyrics whole and even listen to a recording [here.](https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/10/ghost-stories-in-song-for-halloween/)


	5. Episode Five: The Demon of Denton, Part One

_“Thank you all for the great response to our ghost encounter episode. Strange things happen on the road and I feel lucky to be able to share it all with you. Having a community, even one that exits all across the world and in digital spaces, is important. It’s something that the people in today’s story know all too well. Denton is a typical East Coast college town with a campus set in the sprawling countryside. There is relatively little tension between town and gown, with a lot of former students moving into the residential area after graduation. But at night there are shadows in Denton and something moves between them. I received a message from a group of students that had an encounter in those shadows that changed them forever…”_

“Where do you want me to start?” Maaran asked as Idara clipped the mic to his jacket. He looked nervous, though whether that was the strain of the whole situation or because he was afraid Idara and Loki (or Luke as he’d introduced himself) would ridicule or dismiss him when he told his story in full.

“Start at the beginning,” Idara said with a reassuring smile. “I’ll introduce you and Niamh,” she nodded to the other student, hovering behind Maaran, “then you can tell us exactly what happened a year ago.”

Maaran nodded and took a deep breath, the shaking in his shoulders easing a little. Behind him Niamh didn’t look as convinced, biting their lip and bouncing on the balls of their feet as if they were about to bolt from the room.

“Maaran Sastri is taking classes in journalism, sociology and English at Denton College,” Idara spoke into the microphone. “His goal is to one day be an investigative journalist, writing the wrongs of the world through the power of words.” By her side Loki sat poised by the recording equipment, his face a serene mask. He would never admit it but Maaran’s story had piqued his interest from the first line and he was eager to find out more. They were crammed together in the dorm room that Maaran shared with another student who had hastily left the campus a couple weeks before.

Every free surface was piled with books. Lots of textbooks yes but also mystery novels and investigative works. Idara had spotted some books on the supernatural from her own collection.

“He’s been a student at Denton for the past two years along with Niamh Colton, a biology student with an interest in physiology. Both of them join me today on campus to tell me about a terrifying encounter that they had just over a year ago.”

Idara nodded to Maaran who took another deep breath.

“I had a big assignment due that week so I’d basically been living at the archive. It’s held in one of the buildings on the edge of campus used by the history department. It’s the Wilfred Malick Historical Archive but we just call it the Malick Building. Dr Wellend had been really nice and set me up with a study room so I could go through some old files with no distractions. This was the third or fourth day I’d been going through these files. This day I lost track of time and it was about 10 or 10.30 by the time I finished. It was dark, this area on campus isn’t really well lit and I had to walk all the way across campus back to my dorm.”

Maaran hesitated and Idara smiled at him to continue.

“There’s trees on the three sides of the building. Kind of like a small forest. As you make your way down there’s a couple of temporary module type buildings used for storage and study groups. Lots of places to hide round there. The campus is really safe but that late at night, that dark…it was creepy you know?”

“So I walk down the path past those building and there was a slight breeze so the trees were rustling. It wasn’t noisy but it wasn’t completely silent. I heard footsteps and I saw Niamh ahead of me with a box and we acknowledged each other. We were heading in the same direction.”

“When did you first notice you weren’t alone?” Idara asked. Maaran looked up at Niamh who laid a hand on his shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze.

“Something moved above my head, it was fast and dark. It barely made a sound so at first I thought I was imaging things but Niamh stopped too. Whatever it was had jumped between the buildings, right over us. We waited but nothing happened and we both kind of looked at each other and moved on. Then as soon as we did we heard a thump behind us. As soon as we turned around it was sprinting away.”

Idara knew that in their position, she would have sprinted off after the creature. Maaran and Niamh had been frozen in fear though when the creature looked back at them before disappearing into the darkness.

“What did it look like?”

“Tall, muscular. I couldn’t make out its features, it was too dark. I think it had hair because it was moving in the breeze slightly. It’s eyes were huge and black but I think they were slightly reflective. I can’t be sure. It ran away before I could process anything more.”

Still in a state of shock, Maaran and Niamh has sprinted to the centre of campus which had a few students milling around and better lighting. They’d flagged down a security guard and spilled the story.

“There was no sign of anyone when they arrived,” Idara explained. “But the next morning a maintenance worker found footprints on the roof of one of those temporary buildings. The college dismissed the incident as a prank but things were about to get stranger.”

“We went back,” Maaran explained, sheepishly. “I know that sounds completely mad because it was terrifying but I couldn’t shake the feeling something else was going on. By now Niamh and I had gotten to know each other. Neither of us thought it was a prank and they suggested we look into the forest behind the Malick Building.”

“I think that’s pretty brave.”

“Brave or stupid, we didn’t find much at first. Something had definitely been there, the undergrowth was trampled but it could have been an animal of some type. So we went to the biology department and borrowed a couple of their night vision cameras. We said we were investigating the wildlife on campus and they agreed, even got a couple of first year students to help us set everything up and go through the footage.”

“So what happened?”

“It was trashed, everything smashed to pieces and only one frame of useable footage.” Niamh leaned forward to slide a print out across the table. It was blurry, everything coated in the eerie green light of the night vision but at the centre was a humanoid shape that seemed to be moving, fast.

“We took it to the administration and they brought in animal control. There’s been more sightings in the past year but no one can take a picture or record it. Buildings have been vandalised and student has gone missing!” Maaran jabbed a finger at the photo. “It’s not an animal. Look at it! Someone is doing this.”

“And we’re going to find out who,” Idara said.

“How exactly do you propose to do that?” An hour later Loki and Idara were back in her RV, the curtains pulled across the cockpit so that they could be used as a makeshift evidence board. In the centre Idara had pinned the print out and next to it a sheet with Maaran’s timeline.

“By going back to the beginning,” Idara said. “There’s no record of any incident’s before Niamh and Maaran encountered the cryptid-“

“The what?”

“A creature who’s existence is debated.”

“I think this creature’s existence is beyond debate,” Loki tapped the picture and Idara rolled her eyes.

“Okay what would you call it? The perp? The unsub?”

“Point taken,” Loki frowned. “So the timeline is where we start. This is not a creature of local myth or legend. It came here.”

“So the question is why,” Idara nodded. She began pulling up website about cryptozoology and papers about migration, feeding habits, mating habits, hibernation and anything else she could think of. Loki began making lists of creature he knew existed on other worlds that could possibly fit the description Maaran gave.

“It could be alien?”

“Perhaps,” Loki said. “The climate and resources on Earth make it desirable but this is a populated area and humans are…defensive when it comes to things you don’t understand.” Idara bit her lip and paused scrolling for a moment. Loki sensed the change in her demeanour.

“You wish to ask about the attack on New York?”

“I…You never talk about it or what happened to you or the effect its had on you. You’re content to just ride around with me, even once you were healed. That seems…” she trailed off and the eye contact with Loki became too much and she turned back to the screen.

Turning back to his neatly written list of creatures, Loki frowned. He could argue that he stayed because Idara still had the cube, hidden away somewhere. His magic had been inaccessible since Thanos’ influence over him had been broken. Magical wounds were like physical ones in many ways. They varied inn severity and impact. Being mind controlled for so long meant that his powers had gone dormant, needing time to recover like a broken bone. 

Of course there was limited storage on the RV so he knew exactly where it was. He could say that as an alien on this planet, and a fugitive, there was safety in numbers and since she hadn’t called the Earth’s authorities or left him to die on the road Idara seemed like a safe bet for travelling companion. Loki had been in worse situations on his own and survived so that too felt like an excuse.

Truthfully, Loki didn’t know why he stayed. Idara and her RV felt safe but he could not articulate why. Perhaps her belief in the things other humans so carelessly and foolishly dismissed provoked a kind of kinship in him? Perhaps he admired this planet and it’s short lived but resilient inhabitants more than he thought possible and Idara represented the best of that?

Perhaps he was just desperate for a friend?

Looking up, Loki wondered, not for the first time, why Idara had harboured an enemy of her planet when most other people would have either sought revenge or to use him for their own gain. Instead she had nursed him back to health, given him a place to stay and then brought him along on her adventures.

“Why didn’t you hand me over to SHIELD when you found me?” Loki asked. Idara looked up from the computer in surprise, brow furrowed as she considered the question. 

“I don’t trust SHIELD,” she said eventually, “and before you ask, I don’t really trust anyone else in authority either. SHIELD has a lot of influence and they use that influence to suppress and conceal. If I handed you over to them who knows where you would have ended up?”

“But I attacked your planet. As an enemy of Earth what does it matter if SHIELD locked me up and tortured me?” On Asgard no one would have cared what happened to an enemy. In fact the bloodier the retribution the better. He shuddered at the thought of returning there now, what horrors Odin would concoct.

“Yeah but you were under mind control, you’d been subject to months of god-knows-what by Thanos and I’m pretty sure, though you haven’t explicitly said it, you were trying to sabotage yourself at the time. Selvig’s failsafe? You must have included that in your plans right? The sceptre completely took over his brain, he wouldn’t have had the agency to do that himself. The whole plan seemed weird, I think its because you were struggling against yourself.”

“What makes you so sure?” Loki’s voice began to rise. “How do you know I’m not a danger to you?”

“We’ve been travelling together for weeks and nothing has happened,” Idara said with a shrug. “You helped me with my research and my show. We hung out with a ghost together. You’re practically my partner right now.”

“Who says that won’t change? That at a moment’s notice I won’t turn around and betray you?” Loki’s eyes narrowed.

“Nothing you’ve done so far suggests that’s going to happen.” Idara tilted her head to one side. “Are you going to ‘turn around and betray’ me?”

“…no.”

“So why are we having this conversation? Things like that are choices. We’re choosing to work together. Now have you got anything useful on that pad?”

Somewhat bewildered Loki handed the pad over for Idara to read. In truth it was a short list. Under Asgard’s ‘protection’ Earth was considered a dangerous place for most races to visit. He knew the Kree and the Skulls had both made it to Earth in the past though their influence was minimal. 

“And the Skulls are the shapeshifters right?”

“Yes, they have always resisted Kree rule and so in retaliation they were painted as terrorists. The deception associated with shapeshifting doesn’t help though in truth its more complicated than that.”

“Sound familiars. Okay, there are some stories of hominid cryptids in the US. But something like the Skunk Ape, Sasquatch or the Fouke Monster have only been reported in limited geographical areas. There’s no stories about anything like that anywhere near Denton. If it migrated it would have had to have come really far and that just seems unlikely. The other option is that its a creature that was dormant for a long time and then something woke it up. Any creature would lash out at a presumed intrusion into its habitat. It would have to be a long hibernation period though. Not seasonal.”

“What about the missing student?” Loki asked. “There’s no other mention of this creature hunting humans. Why target this student?”

“Kerry MacMillan,” Idara pulled out a photo and pinned it to the curtain. “She was a post-grad student in the history department, she was an assistant to Dr Wellend at the archive and then about three months after Maaran and Niamh saw the creature she upped and vanished. Her friends said she’d been struggling with her work life balance and they reported her missing but from what I can gather they weren’t initially concerned.”

“Seems strange.”

It was. Kerry had been writing her thesis on a scientist at the University in the fifties, the first woman to attain a position there. It had been a big project that involved a lot of cataloguing and so Kerry had worked long hours. When interviewed by the police Kerry’s friends had admitted she was reserved and introverted, really her friends were more acquaintances from her student residence and the department. They didn’t know much about her background or her personal life. She wasn’t in a romantic relationship and she wasn’t close to her parents.

“The police report says that they think she couldn’t handle the pressure and so just left. There were a couple of books, her laptop and phone missing from her room along with her wallet and ID. They couldn’t find her car either so the theory is she drove away.”

“A creature would not take her vehicle or personal effects,” Loki mused. The picture Idara had put up was from an ID of some sort. Kerry had dark circles under her eyes, thin lips pressed together. Though her expression was blank, there was an aura of sadness. “I think we should start here, with her.” He said firmly, tapping the photo. 

“Her housemates are still in town,” Idara said, “perhaps talking to them will give us more information?”

A quick, persuasive phone call later and Idara and Loki were in a rental car heading across town to where Kerry’s old student house was. Two of her housemates still lived there, both grad students like she was. Seemingly they knew her better than anyone but given how reserved she was that wasn’t saying much.

It was one of those summer evenings where everything was peaceful and seemed to stretch onwards. The radio was playing some kind of golden oldies show and Idara hummed along, her fingers idly tapping a rhythm on the steering wheel.

There was a kind of peace that reminded Loki of being a child, holed up in the library at Asgard on his own. Long, lazy afternoons surrounded by thick leather tome bursting with stories. He had never been able to read them fast enough. It felt like walking into another world until Thor inevitably interrupted or a servant was sent to drag him to dinner with his parents. If he could have, Loki would have stayed there endlessly. Sitting in the car, eyes closed he could almost feel the paper beneath his finger tips, almost smell the leather and candle wax.

Until an explosion cut through that feeling and the car swerved violently off the road, careering into a tree. 

Blood pounded in Loki’s ears as he struggled to reorient himself.

“Idara?”

“I think the tires…” Blood trickled down her forehead and her eyes were unfocused. “Maybe we hit something?”

“I…” Loki stopped. In the rear view mirror was the figure of a man striding towards them in the road. He held himself like a warrior, walking with purpose towards his enemy. “This was deliberate, we need to move. Are you hurt?”

Idara shook head and they both scrambled from the car out into a deserted road.

“Where’d he-“ The sound of the man landing on the roof of the car and driving his fist through the roof like it was made of paper cut off Idara’s question. Loki stepped in front of her, shielding her from the man.

“I think we’ve found your cryptid,” he said softly.

“That’s definitely human,” Idara said, voice trembling. She was right. With head to toe body armour, everything about the man screamed human soldier, trained and deadly. Everything apart from the gleaming arm of course.

TO BE CONTINUED


	6. Episode Six: The Demon of Denton, Part Two

Staring up at the man with the metal arm, Loki’s brain cycled through their options at breakneck speed. Their adversary was highly trained based on the way he had ambushed them and instinctively Loki knew the aim was to kill them both. Idara was no fighter, at least not one who could go toe to toe with a warrior like this.

Under normal circumstances Loki’s magic would give him the upper hand but without it the odds were more balanced. That was without taking into account the fact that he was essentially unarmed.

The road was deserted, there was no one to call for help and nowhere they could take cover.

“Don’t suppose we can talk our way out of this one,” Idara said as the man jumped down and strode towards them. She and Loki leapt apart as he threw himself towards them, his metal fist creating an indentation as he landed in the space they had just been standing in.

No human should have that kind of strength, thought Loki. Stark’s suit gave him a physical boost and the soldier had enhanced abilities but they were exceptions. Perhaps this one was an exception too. No visible technology other than the arm so it was either internal or the result of biological experimentation.

“Who are you?” Loki demanded. No response, just another blow that Loki was able to side step. Barely. “Who sent you?” Again no response other than another move to attack. Loki hadn’t lost any of his speed or grace, darting behind the soldier and avoiding a third attempt. “Not very talkative are you? I would be tempted to believe you were some kind of automaton but I can see behind that mask the hint of a face. Flesh and blood.”

The soldier threw himself forward and this time the blow landed and Loki felt a sickening crunch reverberate through his shoulder and down his arm. With a snarl of pain, he balled his other hand into a fist and brought it crashing into the side of the soldier’s head, right on his ear, hoping to stun him. The man didn’t even flinch, bringing up his foot and hooking around Loki’s leg to unbalance him. With another sharp punch Loki was sent flying backwards.

“Stop,” Idara shouted. “Whatever you want we can talk about this!” The soldier turned around, giving Loki a fraction of a second to get back on his feet and leap forwards. He was damned if that man took another step towards Idara. Brute strength was not a weapon in Loki’s arsenal. He had speed, cunning and absolute no compunction against fighting dirty. Thor, for all his berserker rage in battle, was particular about observing the proper rules of engagement in a fight. Loki was particular about not getting beaten to a pulp. 

“Go for the soft parts” was always a safe bet in a fight though the armour the man was wearing meant there was precious little of that. Instead Loki grabbed two fistfuls of hair, pulling hard enough to jerk the man’s head back, surely sending spasms of pain down his neck.

“Get the mask off!” Idara screamed and she began fumbling around in her bag. Without questioning why Loki reached for it, only to have a meal hand clamp down on his fingers. Pain flooded through him but he pushed onwards, finally pulling the mask off.

A blank but familiar expression greeted him. Loki had seen the same look before, every time on Thanos’ ship when he’d been greeted by his own reflection. Now of course he knew why, his mind had only been partially tethered to himself while the Maw, at behest of Thanos had control. It was the look of someone under complete control. 

_“You will be a child of Thanos. Rejoice as you are freed from your burdens. Pain is your friend, your liberator. Forget who you once were, forget the unloved second son, the foundling, the runt, the weakling. Forget the man who threw himself from the bridge and rejoice. Thanos brings tidings of a world made free and you shall thrive there”_

_“Stop. Please stop. No more…I can’t, please…”_

_“You can and you will! It is necessary. We shall remove all weakness, doubt, fear, shame. Open your mind and I will erase the imperfections. I will bring you balance. It will hurt, yes…but when I am done you will fear nothing. You will be a child of Thanos, burdened with glorious purpose.”_

Loki almost felt bad as he got in a couple of short, sharp blows to his eyes and nose. Almost. The imminent threat to both his and Idara’s lives made it necessary.

He ignored the nausea, the narrowing of his vision and the electricity humming through his veins as he kept striking. He ignored the fact that the man’s face morphed for a fraction of a second into Ebony Maw’s.

“Now what?” The soldier had stumbled backwards but seemed unbothered by the pain. It was enough time for Idara to hold up a can, and charge forward, spraying something at him. This did get a response, a muffled grunt as his eyes burned red and streamed with tears as he coughed and choked. 

“Back to the car!” Loki didn’t need telling twice and half feel into the passenger seat as Idara fumbled with the keys trying to get the engine to start. He hands were shaking.

“What was that stuff?”

“Pepper spray.” The car burst into life and with a screech of the tires Idara managed to steer off the side of the road and speed away. “Can you see him?”

Loki twisted around in the seat and his heart dropped.

“He’s chasing us. How fast can this thing go?”

“I’m going as fast as I can. He won’t be able to keep up at this speed.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Loki warned. The soldier wasn’t slowing down, in fact the distance between them was closing. The car was damaged, wheezing and Loki could see a stream of fuel in their wake.

Powerless. He was just as powerless as when Ebony Maw had cracked open his mind and ripped apart the contents. 

“Loki? Loki!”

Idara’s voice sounded so far away. So did the thud as the soldier landed on the roof of the car. So did the rip of metal and Idara’s scream, as he tore through the roof. Everything seemed to slow down. He needed to do something, he needed to save them. The void inside him where his magic should be screamed at him. It was a locked door and Loki needed the key. For weeks he’d been trying to tap into his magic with no luck and now it was going to cost them their loves.

Idara swerved from side to side, hoping to throw the soldier off the car but he remained steadfast. The silver arm reached through the hole again, seizing Idara by the neck and squeezing.

The pauses between heartbeats was so long it felt like Loki’s heart had stopped. At least that was the sensation as he watched Idara’s eyes widen as she struggled for air. Grabbing at her attacker did nothing, Loki wasn’t strong enough to get him to loosen his grip. The car began to swerve more violently as Idara’s grip slacken. Loki screamed, the sound primal, echoing through his body right from the core.

The magic awakened and as the chains fell away, green light pulsed around the car. Loki didn’t have a chance to think on instinct he grabbed Idara and as they fell through space he pulled her close.

_Home. Think of home._

There was a shout and they landed on something hard. The world was spinning and Loki didn’t have the strength to stand up . All he knew is they were out of the car, away from their attacker.

At least for a while.

“Loki? Loki can you hear me?” Idara croaked out. Her eyes were filled with tears and for a moment Loki wondered if it was for him. Not that was foolish, she had thought she was about to die. He groaned and tried to nod in response but his body felt strange.

“You teleported us,” Idara said, helping him sit up. “Magic. You used magic to get us back.” They were outside the RV. A lopsided smile broke out on Loki’s face. He’d done it.

“I need rest for a little while,” he said and awkwardly clambered to his feet. Idara caught him as he swayed violently. “Then I’ll put some wards around. He’ll be back.”

“Whoever the hell he is.” Inside the RV Idara guided him to the fold out bed. Barney scampered out of his hiding place with a meow and launched himself into Loki’s lap. “What do you need? What can I do to help?”

“When I was a child and used too much magic my mother always brought me chocolate cake,” Loki laughed. It sounded slow and strange to his own ears. “Sugar is good for…keeping your levels up.”

“You broke down whatever barrier was keeping your magic from you but you’ve used up too much energy?” Idara asked as Loki settled down.

“Yes that’s it! You’re good at that, working things out. I bet if you had magical powers…” Idara never found out what Loki meant. His eyes closed as his voice trailed off and his eyes slid closed.

Her surroundings began to swim as the tears welled up again. She’d almost died. It hurt to swallow from where the soldier had a trip on her neck. 

What if he came back while Loki was passed out? She couldn’t hold him off on her own. Betty, sensing Idara’s growing distress, wound around her legs, purring loudly. Idara scooped her up and buried her face in Betty’s fur. Muffling the sobs.

“No,” Loki mulled, “no crying.” One eye opened and stared up at her. Idara shook her head, the words wouldn’t come. “We’re safe. I promise.”

“How can you promise that? We don’t even know who he was…I can’t…it’s not…” There wasn’t enough air. Idara couldn’t breathe and the walls were closing in. She let Betty jump out of her arms and tried to steady herself, hands on her knees.

“Idara.” The bed creaked as Loki shifted round agonisingly slowly. “Deep, slow breaths. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” Idara shook her head, a sob escaping her lips. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. This was the most frightened she had ever been in her life. “Look at me.”

Idara’s dark brown eyes met Loki’s ice blue ones and not for the first time she felt she could see right through him. Her breath caught in her throat.

“I owe you a debt and I intend to pay,” Loki said sternly, taking her hands gently in his. “I am going to keep you alive. The soldier has no idea what happened. It will take him a while to get here. He’s to conspicuous to move round during the day and the campus is crawling with people. Give me an hour to rest and then I will cover this place in so many sigils Dormammu himself wouldn’t be able to get in.”

Idara had no idea what that meant but she believed Loki with every fibre of her being. Shuddering she began to take deep, steadying breaths, her heart rate slowing and her awareness of her surroundings returning to normal. The minutes ticked by and Loki held onto her hands, rubbing his thumb gently across her knuckles as she began to feel a little calmer.

“Thank you for that,” she said with a watery smile.

“Your first battle I assume?” Loki smiled. “You were fearsome. The trick with the pepper spray was inspired and then trying to throw him off the car.”

“It didn’t work.”

“Doesn’t matter. You fought hard. On Asgard you would be honoured as a hero.” It wasn’t totally a lie. Of course a glorious death would have made for a better story than slipping away with magic but Idara didn’t need to know that. 

“Get some rest. I’ll make us something to eat and see if I can find out anything about our new friend. Oh and I should call Kerry MacMIllan’s housemates, they’ll wonder why we didn’t show up! And Maaran and Niamh they need to be warned too.”

“Breathe,” Loki said softly, “remember it will all be fine. Once we’re better protected we can resume our quest.”

“I just want to give them a heads up. If someone is clearing up loose ends that that could include Maaran and Niamh.” Loki nodded and settled down. Exhaustion was threatening to overwhelm him. The cats were snuggled at his sides and he didn’t hear Idara moving around the kitchen.

When he awoke the sun was setting and there was a delicious smell in the air. Idara was sitting at the desk, open files around her as she tapped away at her laptop. She looked up as Loki clambered to a sitting position.

“How do you feel?”

“Like a dragon sat on me,” Loki said, stretching. “But all things considered that isn’t too bad.”

“I’ll take your word for it. I made us some dinner.” She held out a plate for him containing fried onions and something Loki had never seen before, caramelised. On the side was helping of bright orange rice and some beans.

“Dodo,” Idara explained as Loki bit into his, the sweet taste making his eyes light up. “It’s fried plantain. My grandmother in Nigeria makes it all the time. It always reminds me of her so its kind of my comfort food. The rice is jolof rice.”

“I can see why its your comfort food, its delicious,” Loki said. Before he demolished the entire plate in one go he looked up at Idara. “How are you feeling?”

“You’re asking me?” Idara laughed as she speared a chunk of plantain with her fork. “You’re the one who had to sleep off magical overload for the past few hours. I’m feeling better though,” she added as a worried expression passed over Loki’s face.

“You’ve been researching?” Loki nodded to the screens.

“I have. Details are sketchy but I think we encountered an operative that’s responsible for hundreds of attacks globally.” Idara pulled up a grainy black and white image that vaguely resembled the man who had attacked them in that they ere both vaguely human shaped. “There’s no consensus in the intelligence community that this guy even exists. It’s all rumour and hearsay.”

“Our encounter earlier felt very real,” Loki said between mouthfuls. “Who does he work for?”

“Unclear. What little I’ve found suggests he was trained in the Soviet Union.” Loki eyes narrowed in confusion. Idara had given him crash course on twentieth and twenty first century human history and he’d done a lot of reading so the term wasn’t unknown to him but the timeline seemed off given the man’s age. “I don’t think he’s a Russian asset though. He’s credited with dozens of killing over the past fifty years.”

“He did not look old enough,” Loki said slowly, “but his strength, his speed. He is no normal human.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Idara, “he must be an enhanced. If he’s been working that long then he could have been subject to all kinds of experiments throughout the years. Want to know what the holy grail of biological engineering is here on Earth? The one thing no one has ever been able to replicate?”

“The soldier. Captain America.”

“Bingo! I think he could be an attempt to replicate the Erskine formula. Still doesn’t answer the question of who sent him or why though.”

“I doubt Maaran and Niamh were targeted,” Loki said, setting aside his plate. “If he wanted to kill them he could. The building he was seen by was the one where our missing researcher worked?”

“Yep. The Wilfred Malick Archive. It’s home to several collections, Kerry worked on one from the fifties. Ostensibly she was researching the life and work of the first female scientist at the university but without her notes we don’t know what she found. The only thing her housemates could tel me was that before her disappearance she was trying to compile records of experiments.”

“Seems suspicious,” said Loki, “and a good place to start.”

“Tomorrow. I’ve told Maaran and Niamh that we were targeted on the way to talk to Kerry’s friends. They’re going to stay out of state for a little while. I think they’re scared.”

“That’s sensible, at least while we’re here. How easy will it be to get into the archive?”

“I’ve been calling all day but when they finally picked up I was told that the archive is closed to visitors for the foreseeable future. Something to do with preservation efforts. Blah blah blah. We’re going to need to find another way in.”

“Idara are you suggesting breaking and entering?” Loki grinned. She gave a small shrug and a wry smile. “Excellent. First things first though I need to protect the RV.”

“Will it wipe you out again?”

“Wards are simple enough,” said Loki. “Unless of course our trained assassin is also a sorcerer but I highly doubt that.” He didn’t add that nothing would surprise him at this point.

The air was cool outside. The sun had fully set and the moon peeked out from behind the clouds. Idara leaned in the doorway as Loki walked around, trailing a golden thread of magic behind him as he walked in a circle around the RV. 

“It’s a barrier that no one other than your or I can pass through,” he explained to Idara, “and at the four cardinal points I will cast a rune for protection. They will strengthen the barrier.” Idara nodded but looked unconvinced. “I will put extra runes on the doors and windows too in the frankly impossible event anyone passes the barrier.” It was extra work that would push his limits but if it made Idara feel safer it was worth it.

“How does magic work?” Idara asked as Loki drew the final rune in the air. The symbol crackled with light before fading to nothing. Loki could still feel it though.

“It’s complicated and there isn’t really one answer,” Loki said as they headed inside. Idara followed him as he drew smaller runes on the doors and windows. “Basically its manipulating the various energies of the universe. It depends on the energy and the abilities of the wielder. The magic I have just done is worked with a particular runic language and draws upon the Earth’s natural energies. There are magics like seidr for knowing or manipulating the future that tap into time itself. Some magic users draw upon power latent in their own bodies or from other creatures. The list is almost endless."

Idara nodded and said nothing, hovering in the middle of the RV. She was still afraid Loki realised. Her life had never been in danger before, despite how fearlessly she went after the truth, how relentless her pursuit of justice.

“The runes will hold,” Loki reassured her, “but for tonight perhaps we should stay together? I am a perfect gentleman,” he added with a wink that had the desired effect of making Idara laugh and easing the tension.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep,” she confessed, “perhaps you could tell me about some of the other types of magic?”

“It would be my absolute pleasure,” Loki beamed, settling down on the fold out bed. Idara curled up next to him, listening intently and asking questions as the night wore on. Finally she was fast asleep to Loki’s relief. He did not move for fear of waking her but now he was attuned to the magical energies he had cast around the RV he was acutely aware of everything coming into contact with the barrier from birds skimming above it to insects crawling in the grass.

It wasn’t a surprise when he felt the man walk straight up and not flinch when the magic pushed him back. Loki could almost feel the man’s breath against the barrier, as close as he was. 

“Who are you?” He whispered into the darkness and for a moment Loki half expected a response but the soldier just stood there in silence for hours until the first rays of sunlight pierced the horizon. Then as suddenly as he appeared he was gone.

TO BE CONTINUED


	7. Episode Seven: The Demon of Denton, Part Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki and Idara slowly put the pieces together of the mysterious goings on in Denton as they stage a daring break in.  
> This episode contains a reference to blood and violence.

Sleep was uneasy for Loki. Once he felt the soldier leave the magical perimeter he drifted further off but there was always an awareness at the edge of his perception. Beside him Idara shifted, her brow permanently furrowed, assailed by bad dreams. By the time they both woke up neither of them looked particularly rested.

Silently they ate some reheated dinner from the previous night. Idara was reading through some of the information she’d gathered while Loki was recovering and Loki was musing on how long it would take him to get back to full strength. 

He could sense the tesseract now, its energy pulsing nearby. It occurred to him how simple it would be to take it and run. With the space stone Loki could go anywhere in the universe and never worry about Thanos of anyone else catching up to him. Yet the thought was an unpleasant one. It wasn’t just that there was a killer out there who was now aware of Idara’s work. Even after they solved this particular mystery Loki wasn’t sure how he felt about leaving.

“Anything else on our mysterious attacker?” Loki asked, clearing away their plates. 

“Possibly. It’s not much but he may have a name, or a code name at least. I’ve found several references to The Winter Soldier but that’s it.”

“An odd epithet. He doesn’t have any winter or ice based powers…”

“I thought it might be a reference to the cold war or something,” Idara sighed. “But it doesn’t seem to fit. All I know for sure is that he’s highly dangerous.”

“When I removed his mask yesterday there was a strange look in his eyes,” Loki said hesitantly. He wasn’t sure how he felt offering up this particular wound up for scrutiny. Idara’s expression was one of interest rather than intrigue, head tilted to one side, waiting for Loki to continue. “I think The Winter Soldier might be being controlled.”

“Like brainwashing? Mind control I mean.”

“Yes.” Loki dragged the word out. _Like I was_ , remained unsaid but hung in the air between them.

“Poor man,” said Idara. “It would explain why he didn’t react to our attacks. He’s been programmed to fight through any pain.”

There was a heavy, sad silence between them. Loki wasn’t one to feel sorry for those who attacked him but he had seen the look of a caged animal in the soldier’s eyes during their confrontation.

“Hopefully breaking into the archive should give us a clue as to who the soldier’s master is,” said Loki.

“And what he’s protecting…”

While night time would be prime breaking and entering time the chances were that The Winter Soldier would be on the lookout for them. Instead they would wait until round midday when staff would be going for lunch.

“You’re going to use magic to get us in right?” Idara asked eagerly. “Like teleporting?”

“Could be risky since we don’t know the layout of the place and if there are any traps,” said Loki. “What we need is a distraction. An illusion of some sort to that will give us enough time to slip past whoever is on guard.”

“I was looking at blueprints of the building online. There’s a vast basement area used for storage,” Idara said, showing Loki the plans. “There’s a chance that once we slip past the main desk here there may be more security if the basement. Is there like a spell that could help us see?”

“Scrying is not my strong suit,” Loki said apologetically, “but there may be a way to conceal ourselves. Who is involved with the archive?”

Idara pulled up a list of trustees on the website. Gideon Malick and his daughter Stephanie were the two major names, along with a Kirk Vogel and a bunch of academics.

“Malick is a member of the World Security Council,” Idara said, bringing up a video of a Malick speaking at the UN. “They came under fire recently for allegedly being the ones to order the nuke attack on New York during the Chitauri invasion. There’s rumours that some of the council members are going to resign due to the controversy.”

“Interesting,” said Loki. An idea was beginning to form. 

They spent the rest of the morning going over the plan and making sure they had everything they would need. Outside the air was crisp as they headed to the archive. The fear had gone but Idara was still far more aware of her surroundings than she had been previously. Every movement in the corner of her eye made her tense and there was a metallic taste in the air.

Loki too felt electricity thrumming through his veins the closer they got. The attack the previous day was the start of something deep and dark, he could sense that. Loki wasn’t sure if it was his newly healed powers or a lifetime of looking into dark corners but either way he instinctively knew that they were going to find something twisted at the end of this hunt.

“It doesn’t look busy,” Idara murmured. There was a lone woman at the reception desk. Behind her was a large set of double doors with frosted glass. It didn’t look like there was anyone immediately beyond that.

There was a rubbish bin at the other end of the foyer. With a flick of his wrist Loki summoned a steady stream of smoke and a flick or flames. The girl squeaked in response and charged over with a fire extinguisher. Loki grabbed Idara’s hand and with another quick gesture muffled their footsteps as they sprinted to the double doors. It felt like running on thick snow without the accompanying crunch. 

“That was awesome,” Idara whispered as they slipped into the archive. It was a long room with shelves running down either side and rows and rows of desks down the centre. Catalogues of items to be requested were laid out neatly at the front just in front of where Loki and Idara entered. Each one listed the material belonging to a specific collection. The first was full of sketches and diagrams from a physicist from the early 30s. The second was a small collection of technical drawings. Then there was the personal papers of the first dean of the university and a second catalogue that detailed his collection of artwork bequeathed to the university. Idara began taking photos on her phone.

“None of this is worth killing over,” Idara said, “It’s papers and stuff. Interesting yes but not deadly.”

“All these men have been attached the university either as scholars of staff,” Loki picked up another catalogue. “This is what our missing student was looking through? Dr Ida Devarell was a scientist here in the 50s and the archive holds her personal papers and research notes.”

“Not many women working here back then,” said Idara, “but what would Kerry have found that they would have sent an assassin after her?”

“Whatever it was it won’t be on display,” Loki nodded to the other end of the room. “Those doors lead to the basement according to your plans.”

The doors were locked and Loki reached out with his magic to find that the mechanism was far more complicated than originally though. It was easier to manipulate the door so it became a fine mist to pass through like air.

The stairwell was dark, lit by one flickering light. In contrast to the warm panelled wood reading room this was all concrete and metal. Idara shivered as they both strained to hear if anyone was coming.

“There’s someone at the bottom but I can’t sense anyone else,” Loki whispered.

“How do we get past them?” Idara asked. Loki only grinned in response.

If the armed guard at the bottom of the stars was shocked to see Gideon and Stephanie Malick approached he said nothing, only gave a curt nod.

“Good afternoon Sir,” he said gruffly. 

“As you were,” Loki as Gideon said, easily. “We’ll be a while but we don’t want to be disturbed.”

“Of course not Sir.”

It had been almost frighteningly easy, Loki thought as he and Idara walked inside, the glamour melting away to reveal their true selves once more. 

“This looks a lot like that SHIELD base we found in Puente Antiguo,” Idara said. “We should hurry.”

Loki nodded. The room was stark white and all the furniture was metal. It wasn’t laid out like an interrogation room but it was just as hostile. One wall was lined with cabinets with heavy door and another had a series of glass cases. They were bolted shut with temperature and pressure controls to protect the artefacts within.

“That’s Kree,” he said, pointing towards an ornate tablet in the centre. Alongside it were fragments of metal, glass and stone, each stored separately. On the shelf below was a a wooden box covered in runes. “And that’s from Vanaheim,” he said breathlessly. That shouldn’t be there, and neither should the clearly Asgardian blade next to it. It was old, probably dating back to the Jotnar invasion of Earth. Loki’s fingers itched to touch it.

“So you were right about first contact,” said Idara. “Can you open these cabinets magically? They’re locked.”

Reluctantly, Loki pulled himself away from the case and waved a hand over the cabinets. They unlocked with a dull thud. Inside were neatly labelled boxes.

“Project Distant Star Return?” Idara pulled the box off the shelf and began to rummage. “These are NASA files.”

“NASA?”

“National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The US government’s Space exploration program.” Idara explained. She spread out one of the files. Four photographs of men fell out along with a report. “It says that in 2001 these men were sent on a mission and never returned. Shit, half of this is redacted. It looks like they were sent to explore somewhere and Project Distant Star Return was supposed to be the first phase of a long term mission to another planet. No name or coordinates or any other identifying data.”

There was another NASA file with almost every line blacked out except a vague mention of Gideon Malick being the project funder. There were also profiles of the mission personel: an astronaut named Will Daniels and three scientists. Idara snapped photos as Loki carried on digging around in the box. There was an old brown envelope with a carefully wrapped sketch inside. It was a large, black stone with views from every angle.

“June, 1882. The monolith,” Loki read out from the back. There was spidery writing on the back of every single picture with the date at the bottom. There were also later notes folded inside, signed by a familiar name.

“Kerry’s scientist studied the monolith too,” said Loki, “that’s how she drew their attention. Kerry must have come across it in her research.”

“There’s here. It looks like the sixties or seventies judging by the clothes. Is that Gideon Malick?” Idara held up one from a packet. It showed a younger looking Malick and another man standing side by side in front of that same black stone.

“That’s another Kree artefact,” said Loki. “The question is what is it and why is it on Earth?”

The only thing left in the box was a journal, thick and leather bound with other bits of paper slotted between the pages. Just as Idara went to undo the braid wrapped around it the door opened. Loki had a split second to bring the glamour back and rounded on the guard in an aggressive way.

“I told you we weren’t to be disturbed,” he roared in Gideon’s voice only to be met with a gun aimed at his face. 

“Gideon Malick is currently in New York, having tendered his resignation to the World Security Council and holding a very, very public press conference,” the guard said. “Put your hands above your head.”

Loki rolled his eyes and with a wave of his hand a mist descended on the room. Idara shouted as the man began to fire but the bullets evaporated as soon as they hit the mist.

“Grab what you can,” Loki yelled and Idara began shovelling the materials back in the box as Loki smashed open the glass display case, the shards crunching under his feet. He seized the Asgardian dagger and sent it to his pocket dimension along with the Anaheim box. He moved to grab more but there was howl as the guard lurched forward and grabbed at Idara. In realisation she scratched at his face with Stephanie Malick’s long manicured nails. He grunted in pain, stumbling backwards.

The mist was getting thicker now and Loki had all but lost sight of Idara. He reached out and felt her hand slip into his and then in the next moment they were outside the RV.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that,” Idara groaned, the box of materials falling onto the floor at her feet. The glamour faded away again as they both breathed heavily. Loki’s head pounded. “You overdo it again?”

“Somewhat,” he winced. “We should leave. Even if that guard doesn’t connect us with the break in this is become a less and less welcoming place.” Idara nodded, picking up the box and heading inside.

“You rest,” she instructed Loki, “I think we should head back on the road and head as far away as we can for now. We can call Niamh and Maaran tomorrow and update them.”

Loki didn’t need telling twice. By the time Idara had driven out of the campus gates he was curled up on the fold out bed.

Idara was itching to stop and go through the contents of the box once again. Most of all she wanted to know who the Malick’s were involved with. Yes that archive had reminded her of a SHIELD base but Gideon Malick had been very vocal in his criticism of SHIELD and its director. It seemed unlikely that he would be actively involved in operations with them.

“So what if it’s not SHIELD,” Idara murmured. A soft meow on the passenger seat alerted her to Barney’s presence and she gave him a quick scratch behind the ears. Of the two he was the better listener. “I just assumed that base in New Mexico was a SHIELD base because they were there when Thor turned up and they built a compound round the hammer. I thought it made no sense to take that down a rebuild a new structure later but what if they didn’t? What if it’s someone else?”

Barney purred, sitting loaf-like on the seat. The sky was growing darker as Idara continued driving towards the sunset. There was a deep feeling of being chased. The night, the Winter Soldier and something great and unseen was at their backs. 

A thousand different explanations rocketed round Idara’s brain but the pieces wouldn’t fit together.

***

_Loki was in a vast dark room of stone. Except of course he wasn’t. He knew he was dreaming and that he was lying on the fold up bed as Idara drove far away from Denton. He knew that Betty was curled up right beside him, her purring reverberating through his chest._

_But he was here too. The room was cavernous, he couldn’t actually see the ceiling or the other walls aside from the one he stood before._

_The wall was covered in gold leaf so that the great black monolith that stood in front of it looked even more impressive._

_It hummed with an energy that reverberated through Loki’s body. His skin felt tight, like everything inside him was straining to get out._

_“I don’t want to be here.” Loki spoke the words out loud but all he heard was silence as if the monolith was smothering the sound. He wasn’t sure how he knew that but he did as surely as he knew his own name._

_“I’ve had this dream before…”_

_As a child, he had found a book and read about something that had frightened him. He had sobbed in his mother’s lap for hours._

_“Don’t be afraid. It happened a long time ago, before you were even born. That world is closed firmly to ours. The beings there cannot hurt you. They have no form…”_

_But he had still dreamt of creatures he could not see who could take over his body and his mind. He dreamed of creatures who felt on fear and built great stone monuments. He dreamed of rooms like this where those monuments stood and Empires waited to be formed._

_The Di’Alla. Three monoliths of such great power that once brought together could destroy and make worlds in the blink of an eye._

_Creatures with no name and no bodies, sealed in a dimension removed from our own regarded them as a way to crossover but they needed to be combined. Singularly they had power over, time, space and creation. Like many the Kree must have craved that power and sought to create something like that of their own._

_The Black monolith had the power of traversing space and what would the Kree Empire value more than a treasure that would make traversing the conquerable universe as easy as breathing._

“A portal.” Loki shot straight up in bed. “It’s a portal.”

Idara’s face was wet. She wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand and moved over to sit by Loki on the bed. It was dark out, she must have found somewhere to park for the night.

“That makes sense,” Idara sniffed. “In the 70s the Malick family were sacrificing people to it in order to reach something.” Handing over the open journal, Idara tapped her finger on a long list of names. “There were dozens of people killed.”

It took Loki’s sluggish brain a moment to understand what he was reading. On the following pages were dates and descriptions of various, horrifying ordeals suffered by people offered up to the monolith.

“If it’s a portal then they were sending people through it because something terrible was on the other side,” said Idara. She grabbed the box and pulled out a stack of photographs like the ones of Malick and the other young man. “The Malicks had scientists studying it but the journal seems to be a weird mix of science and magic. I thought at first it was a cult that worshipped the monolith but now I think it’s something else.”

“They weren’t successful,” Loki said, “the entries grow more garbled and whatever it was never came back through the monolith.”

“I couldn’t make it past the sacrifice part,” Idara said, grimacing. “Perhaps the monolith only works one way? I’m guessing that’s where the NASA mission was sent through. The cult stuff wasn’t working so Malick tried something else. The question is what was on the other side.”

“I think I know,” Loki handed the journal back. “The last page. That looks familiar.”

The writing has transformed into a messy mass of black squiggles apart from one clear sentence at the bottom.

**No matter how much blood is spent we shall break through to Maveth.**

_There’s nothing more frightening than an enemy you can’t see listeners. Our trip to Denton University posed more questions than answers but this is not the end of this investigation. Since we left the campus there have been no more reports of crypts or mysterious strangers but The Wilfred Malick Archive has been closed down and all the collections are undergoing repair and recataloguing. The whole process is expected to take years and the Malick family have generously donated a sizeable amount of money so that students can have access to alternative materials. A student I spoke to says the entire building is cleared out, it’s just a hollow shell now. But you can’t scrub the past away that easily. We will visit this mystery again soon on_ Quest For The Truth.


	8. Episode Eight: Holiday Special

_Hey listeners…So um, I know that our episodes have been a little erratic lately. We brought you news on a case in Denton and then alluded to interference from outside forces. I guess you’re wondering what happened there and why we haven’t updated you. Up until now I have never been afraid to get my hands dirty in the search for answers. I’m still not but I am learning that the people who want to keep those answers from us are not above doing some underhanded things to stop us…_

Driving was a surprisingly soothing activity. It helped that it fed some of Loki’s insatiable curiosity about Midgard. It also gave him time to think. Today, as it had been for the past month since fleeing Denton, his thoughts were occupied with Idara. Specifically the change that had come over her.

At present she was curled up in the passenger seat, Betty in her arms as she stared out the window. Her eyes were blank, with dark circles underneath. There had not been a single night since The Winter Soldier’s attack that she had not been plagued by nightmares, waking up thrashing around and calling for help. Loki had charged into her small bedroom at the back of the RV every time, talking in a soothing voice and helping her get back to sleep.

If he had been in Asgard, or at least had access to the herbs that grew there he could make an effective potion that warded off bad dreams. There was the option of delving into her mind but it was an intimate process and given what had happened Loki did not feel comfortable broaching the subject. But Idara’s current state of distress was a problem. It hurt to see her afraid and it hurt even more to see her hesitating in her work, that thing that brought her so much joy and purpose.

“Idara,” Loki glanced over, rousing her from her half sleeping state, “can you explain the point of these celebrations to me again please? I want to make sure I am adequately prepared before we arrive.”

“I thought you spent all last night on the internet researching Christmas?” Idara asked with a raised eyebrow. In her arms Betty chirped as if she too could sense the lie. Well it wasn’t really a lie, Loki was concerned about maintaining cover with Idara’s family…

…but yes he hoped a celebration would make her feel better.

“There was a lot of information and it seems that celebrating Christmas varies by family. I would like to hear how the House of Etienam spends their Winter Feasts. I do not wish to come across…alien to your family.”

“Perhaps don’t refer to us as the House of Etienam them,” Idara gave a small laugh, tired but the first one since leaving Denton. “Well both my parents are doctors so for starters it wasn’t unusual for both of them to work over the holidays so we would fit our plans around that.”

“Your parents are healers?”

“Yup, they actually met in medical school and both started off as ER doctors. That’s accidents and sudden illnesses. Now my Dad works with terminally ill patients and my Mom specialises in cardiology, heart problems.”

“You must be very proud,” smiled Loki. It must be nice to come from a family where everyone had such purpose. And if they were both healers then being scholarly must have been held in high regard unlike Asgard where warriors were held in the highest honour.

“I am,” Idara turned back to the front. “They worked hard and always supported us even though none of us wanted to be doctors.”

“It is your sister’s house we are visiting?”

“Yep. She runs a restaurant so Christmas dinner is on her. My brother is at college but he’s home for winter break.”

The brother who had been studying in New York. Idara had mentioned that Edikan had been out of the city during the attack but Loki was still tense. 

“Who do they think I am?” Loki asked slowly, unsure whether he would like the answer. Their reaction to Idara turning up to celebrations with a complete stranger she had apparently been living with for a while would dictate how comfortable this visit would be. 

“You are a friend from college who has been helping me with my podcast,” Idara said. “The battle of New York brought extra work and I needed a second pair of hands. It’s not 100% a lie,” she added ruefully. Loki quirked an eyebrow. It wasn’t 100% the truth either.

“Do I need to brush up on details of your student years?”

“Absolutely not.” The small, half smile had returned. 

“Oh I see,” Loki teased, his eyes going wide. “Too wild to regale your parents with those stories?”

Idara snorted but didn’t argue. Instead she brought the conversation back round to Christmas. Sifon was cooking a number of Nigerian dishes. Her parents would be going to Church on Christmas morning but she and her siblings usually didn’t go. There would be presents exchanged but Loki - who would go by Luke - wasn’t pressured to join in with gift giving. They would also video call Idara’s grandmother and aunts and uncles in Awka and then in the evening it was a family tradition to watch Christmas movies.

“That sounds…”

“Yeah it’s corny,” Idara shrugged.

“I was going to say blissful,” said Loki. “To share food and laughter and joy with one’s family is a gift.” 

“It is.” A wistful look passed over Idara’s face, followed swiftly by a cloud. She sank a little lower into the seat and remained quiet for the next few hours.

The cloud lifted a little as the pulled up to Sifon’s house. The sun was setting and the round of the house was covered in warm white lights that twinkled like stars. A young woman, shorter than Idara but with the same eyes and mouth appeared in the doorway as Loki turned off the engine.

“Before we go in,” Loki said quietly, “are you alright?”

“Happy to be home,” Idara said with a smile that did not reach her eyes.

“I’ve missed you so much!” Loki half expected to hear Idara’s ribs crack as Sifon pulled her into a tight hug. “And you must be Luke,” she added, peering over Idara’s shoulder without letting go. Her words were heavy with intrigue that was reflected in her eyes. Loki put on his most charming smile as the sisters broke apart.

“Thank you so much for graciously letting me into your home over the holidays,” he offered a a hand to shake, inclining his head slightly. The giggle Idara suppressed and the look of surprise that morphed into amusement on Sifon’s face told him he may need to practice his Midgardian greetings. A tingle of anxiety crept up Loki’s spine.

“Very charming,” Sifon grinned and winked at Idara. “Come in, you guys must be tired from driving so long.”

“I haven’t made her suspicious have I?” Loki whispered as they followed Sifon in. Idara shook her head.

“You’re lucky. They’ll think any odd behaviour is cute, trust me.”

Inside the house was warm and homey. In the hallway the walls were covered with photographs. Idara was in some of them and she recognised her parents and brother. In every single on they were smiling, k a far cry from the austere portraits that had been commissioned of the royal family in Asgard.

“Mom and Dad arrived a few hours ago,” Sifon explained, taking Idara’s coat. “Edikan gets here tomorrow but there’s a problem. A friend of his can’t go home for Christmas so I told him to bring them along. Then Jason’s sister called yesterday, she and her boyfriend have broken up again and Jason invited her to spend the holidays with us so all the rooms have gone…”

“We can stay in the RV, right Luke?” Idara gave Sifon’s arm a squeeze.

“Of course.”

“You’re both stars! Now come in, everyone’s desperate to see you!”

Idara was in her parents’ arms before she made it through the doorway into the dining room. There was a large table with a bowl of pink roses in the centre and more family photos on the wall. As Idara’s parents fussed over her Sifon brought out a cake and some plates. It was covered in a thick, glossy chocolate frosting and Loki’s mouth began to water.

“Have you been getting enough sleep darling?” Idara’s father said as her mother kissed the top of her head for the fifth time, hugging Idara tightly as if she were afraid she would disappear.

“Yes Dad!” Idara rolled her eyes and her father looked doubtful, launching into a detailed description of the problems sleep deprivation could cause. A man Loki assumed was Sifon’s husband Jason brought in a tray with teas and coffee, kissing his wife on the cheek as they began dishing everything out.

Loki’s chest constricted as he hovered awkwardly in the doorway. The urge to run rose up in him along with the certainty that he did not belong there.

“Dad, Mom, Jason, this is my friend Luke,” Idara reached back to beckon Loki forwards and he was greeted with a chorus of genuine greetings. “Luke my parents, Fabian and Anwuli Etienam.”

“Doctors, thank you so much for having me.” Fabian shook Loki hand warmly and Anwuli pulled him into a hug.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” Fabian said, “we’ve heard glimpses of you on Idara’s show. It so nice to finally put a name to the face. I made everyone at the hospital listen to your ghost episode.”

“Dad you didn’t!”

“He did,” Sifon rolled her eyes as she handed out slices of cake. “And the neighbors.”

“It was a brilliant piece of journalism and scientific investigation,” said Fabian. “You should both win a prize for that. Oh and I told some of the nurses on the cardiology ward I would get them those new shirts you added to your store.”

“I have some in the RV, I’ll grab them and-“

“I’m paying for them.”

“Dad no!”

“Yes! This is your livelihood. Luke please tell her she can’t give me things for free!”

Loki couldn’t answer, his mouth full of the delicious fluffy cake Sifon had given him. 

“Idara said chocolate cake was one of your favourites,” Sifon chuckled. “I thought it would be nice for you to have some when you arrived.“

“It is heavenly,” Loki said after swallowing. Idara was still talking to her parents so she could not hear him. His chest tightened at the thought that Idara had remembered what he had told her. “Thank you very much Sifon.”

“Where are you from Luke?” Jason asked, pouring coffee into his mug, “is that a British accent I hear?”

“I’m from all over the place,” Loki said apologetically. He caught Idara’s eye once she extracted herself from her father’s embrace and she cut in with a question about Jason’s business. He worked for a charity looking after homeless adolescents and the day before Christmas was planning a big party at a shelter. Sifon’s restaurant was going to provide the food for free. 

Not once did Loki feel out of place as the evening wore on. He and Idara were able to deflect any awkward questions between them and he found himself answering everything else honestly. They wanted to know about him as a person, how he found working with Idara and what drew him to solving mysteries with her.

“Idara’s inspiring,” he said, “who couldn’t feel the same way she does when she starts investigating.” Idara blushed as everyone cheered, murmuring that it was probably time to turn in. Sifon had a full day at the restaurant the next day and Edikan would be arriving with his friend and they were all desperate to see him.

Loki got hugs goodnight from everyone and his beaming face made Idara feel warm and comforted. The feeling was tainted when her mother, looking round to make sure no one was listening beckoned for her to stay. Idara dispatched Loki to feed the cats and Idara and Anwuli slipped into another room.

“What’s wrong Mom?”

“It’s probably nothing,” Anwuli said, but her face didn’t match her words. “A man came to our home a couple of days ago while your father was at work. He gave me this.” 

It was a business card, the SHIELD Logo on the back and on the other side: Jasper Sitwell, Special Agent. Idara’s stomach plummeted, her hands shaking as she took the card.

“What did he want?”

“He said that the authorities were aware of your investigations and were interested in offering you some work,” Anwuli shook her head. “He made it sound above board but it felt wrong. He pushed a little too hard.”

“Did he threaten you?” Idara asked, grabbing her mother by the shoulders, “have you noticed anything else strange? Anyone following you or-?”

“No! Idara, what’s going on?” Idara shook her head, her throat tightening. They had gone to her parents house, anything could have happened. A dozen scenarios, each worse than the last flashed through her mind.

Ever since Denton Idara had been bracing herself for the return of The Winter Soldier. Loki guessed that whoever was controlling him called him off when Loki’s magic had stopped him but Idara was sure they would try again, try and catch them by surprise so Loki didn’t have a chance to teleport them away again.

“Idara? Talk to me, please.” Idara’s lip began to tremble and her mother pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair as the tears began to fall. “Is this to do with the case you stopped investigating? The monster at the college? It isn’t like you to give up on things baby.”

“We were…Someone really didn’t want us looking into it,” Idara sniffed. “I didn’t think they would go to you though!”

“Idara don’t you dare worry about us!” Anwuli said firmly, “we can take care of ourselves. If they’re trying to recruit you it means you have something. You have the upper hand and what’s more you’re in the right.”

“But-“

“But nothing. The world is changing into something strange and you are one of the few people who has never been afraid of that. It’s a powerful thing Idara.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to you because of me,” Idara cried. Anwuli hugged her again, tighter this time.

“If they wanted to hurt us they would have already right? You’ve talked about this on your show before. What was the episode about the missing scientist? They have to maintain appearances.”

Idara wiped her eyes, feeling both utterly drained and lighter than she had since Denton.

“Only you can decide what you do now,” Anwuli said gently, “but don’t make a choice out of fear.”

When Idara got back to the RV Loki was setting up the fold-out bed though he stopped in alarm when he saw Idara’s tear stained face.

“A SHIELD agent went to my parent’s house a few days ago and asked about me,” she explained, handing Loki the card. “Apparently they want to work with me.”

“A ruse no doubt,” Loki said darkly, “are your parents alright?”

“Only Mom was home, she got some bad vibes from the guy. I didn’t tell her the details but I said I was afraid. I am Loki. I am terrified that my family or you are going to get hurt because of this.”

“Me?” Loki’s eyes widened.

“Yeah. The Winter Soldier attacked both of us. What if they know someone who can do magic? What if they send some killer wizard after us next and you get hurt or worse?” Idara said. She sat down on the bed. “Mom says if they’re coming after us its because they know we have something, that I shouldn’t be afraid because it means I can call the shots.”

“A wise woman,” Loki said. He sat down beside Idara and took one of her hands in his. “Fear is natural. Actually fear is useful, its a survival mechanism.”

“I don’t just feel scared though,” Idara said slowly. “Now I’m mad. It’s one thing to come after me but to try and get my Mom to get through to me? That’s wrong, that’s where I draw the line. How can I let them get away with that?”

“So we don’t,” said Loki, “we redouble our efforts. We go through that infernal diary and find out exactly what Malick was doing, what the connection to SHIELD is and then we burn it all.”

Idara nodded. It’s what she wanted more than anything.

“And while we’re here I can put some…discreet charms on your family, that should extend to their homes. Wards of protection. It’s unlikely SHIELD have magic users at the their disposal. There are few magic users on the planet and they tend to congregate elsewhere.”

Idara made a mental note to quiz Loki about that later but in that moment she settled for throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly.

“Thank you,” she murmured into his neck, her words muffled. “You’re a good friend.”

“As are you Idara and friends fight for shared causes. I am your ally in this battle.”

Whatever they sent next, Idara would be ready. There was no way she was letting them win, not after this. And with Loki and the wealth of evidence from the Archive she would prove her mother right, they had the upper hand right now.

_Happy Holidays wonderful listeners. This time of year can be both comforting and difficult for so many reasons. It’s also a time to reaffirm our goals and remind ourselves what is important to us. For me it’s my family and my friends. They love and support me and in return there’s pretty much nothing I won’t do to keep them safe._

_My parents told me you should always stand up to bullies, to people who use threats to get their own way. They told me that no one is beyond reproach and that people who use their power to hide from the consequences of their actions need to be stopped._

_I’m not going anywhere. This show, my life’s work, has always been about find the truth and holding those in power to account. That how I protect the people I love. Stay safe listeners, hold those you love close to you tonight and we will return soon with another episode of_ The Quest For The Truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holiday to season to you all! Thank you so much to everyone who is reading this. I am taking a short break in the New Year so I can recover from writing burnout. This felt like a good place to pause with this story and Idara and Loki will be back soon!


End file.
